Quake
by Hopefullygoodgrammar
Summary: A massive earthquake hits Central, deep chasms open up and a hoard of mysterious new enemies attack, The Homunculi find themselves on the side of the heroes, unlikely alliances are forged, death is around every corner and when the truth is revealed about the leader of the creatures, the world will never be the same.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Chasm**

**DISCLAIMER! I don't own FMA, Hiromu Arakawa does.**

******Chapter 1: The Chasm**

It was 2:34 AM when the earthquake struck.

Amestris had had earthquakes before, but none of them were this grand in scale; the ground in Central shook so hard that at least 54% of the buildings in the city collapsed in great clouds of dust and debris, many were trapped in their homes and many more suffered severe injuries or death sustained by various bits of flotsam.

But the quake didn't stop in Central; it branched out to Rush Valley, Risembool, Lior and every other town in Amestris, it caused massive fatalities and knocked out power almost everywhere, one of these places still with power was a lonely mansion in the deep woods: the home of Dante, the leader of the Homunculi.

At the moment Dante was feeling an emotion that she hadn't felt in nearly 400 years: worry.

Not for herself or for her seven "children", but for her plan: the quake could either help or hinder their pursuit of the Elric brothers, especially Alphonse, whom she had heard had become a living philosophers stone.

She had sent out Gluttony and Wrath to find them before the quake had hit and now she feared that the two had become trapped, she needed the stone to continue her cycle of body-hopping and stay truly immortal, _You know that you can't run forever, you can't outrun equivalent exchange_ said the small voice in her head, she angrily brushed that thought aside **No! I will become immortal, damn it! And no one will stop me, no one!**

She turned to the massive window that overlooked the sea of green trees and far-off mountains, she hated that little voice; it reminded her of Hohenheim, she hated that man, he had left her and their son all those years ago, those wounds would never heal in either her or Envy.

She remembered the times when Hohenheim would sit with her and watch the sun rise and set, Dante felt a stab of fury and sadness in her heart at that memory.

She turned from the window and walked downstairs, she would have to get Envy to give Wrath and Gluttony some backup.

Wrath awoke to the sound of rumbling, what happened to me? he thought, then it all came back in a torrent: he and Gluttony had been spying on the Elrics when the quake struck, the last thing Wrath remembered was the section of street he and his brother were standing on collapsed and they fell.

He heard the rumble again and bolted upright, was another quake coming?.

There was silence and then...

"I'm hungry Wrath"

Wrath let out a sigh, to relieved to be angry

"Wrath?" asked Gluttony, his beady eyes peering out at him from the darkness  
"What?" replied Wrath, getting to his feet

"I think we fell in a hole."

"Well duh!" Wrath growled, his namesake returning, "I swear if you were any dumber you'd be a friggin' rock."

Gluttony gave him a hurt expression, but kept his mouth shut, Wrath looked around him, his eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness: he was in the sewers, the stone was cold and slimy underneath his bare soles and the smell began to assault his nose.

He wandered ahead for a few steps before finding his path blocked by debris, he walked the other way and found it to be blocked as well, he felt his anger rising and he clenched his fists.

"How do I get out of here?" asked Wrath to himself through gritted teeth, then he realized what he needed to do; it was so simple he could have smacked himself in the head, but that would involve causing himself pain, which he didn't like, so he punched Gluttony in the gut instead, he whined and doubled over, Wrath was surprised when he felt a stab of guilt at doing that, it was so unlike him that he felt completely taken aback, then with a shake of his head he dismissed it.

This wasn't a good time to start feeling... Human.

Gluttony watched as his brother used his power to transmute his arm into the wall of fallen stone and pull, the wall came down with a resounding _whump_ and sunlight streamed through, Gluttony watched as his brother sprinted through the opening.

Gluttony didn't like Wrath, Wrath always hit him or yelled at him, just like all of the others except for... Lust: Lust was the only one of his siblings who wasn't mean to him, she could be cold and bossy sometimes, but most of the time she treated him like he wasn't a dumb animal who was only good at eating and disposing of evidence.

Then Lust had begun to go crazy; she had said that she wanted to "be human", it had scared him and when she was going away she had asked if he was coming, he had said no.

Shame welled up inside of him and he felt tears begin to leak down his pudgy face, he sniffed and then started forwards, he didn't want to get Wrath angry.

He had almost caught up to Wrath when he smelled something that made him very, very afraid; he didn't know why it made him scared, but it did: it was a smell unlike any other, it was a sickening mixture of copper, blood, anger and patience, Gluttony walked up to Wrath and gently pushed him aside so he could look into the darkness that had wrapped itself around the beam of light coming from the damaged street.

"Gluttony! what the hell are you d-", Gluttony placed a massive hand over his brother's mouth to silence him, Wrath struggled and bit at his palm, his sharp teeth gouging and tearing his flesh, but Gluttony didn't let go, he couldn't let Wrath get hurt, as mean as he was Gluttony still loved him as family and if Wrath shouted too much the thing {Gluttony was sure that it wasn't human} might, no would, hurt him.

Gluttony picked his brother up and moved towards the hole, keeping his eyes on the blackness that surrounded them, Wrath had gone limp and Gluttony hoped that he hadn't smothered Wrath to death; that would definitely get him in trouble with Mother.

They were almost out of the hole when Gluttony heard what sounded like footsteps coming from within... and getting closer fast, accompanying the footsteps were the sounds of clicking and clacking metal, Gluttony felt terror well up inside of him when he saw the purple eyes, much like those of his siblings, materialize not a few feet from their position.

Throwing caution to the wind Gluttony hoisted Wrath over his shoulder and ran.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer! I don't own FMA

Chapter 2: Teacher and Student

Edward Elric's day had gone from bad to worse.

First he had to make an excruciatingly embarrassing report to Colonel Bastard about how he had let some psychopath escape his custody during what should have been a routine mission, then his teacher Izumi had arrived in a foul mood for some reason or other and now the damn earthquake had separated him from his brother and left him stranded with Teacher.

At first the two had navigated the crumbling ruins of Central in silence, which was fine with Ed, but then she started talking to him, which made him even crankier than he had been before, he wanted to ask her to shut up, but he knew that he would be swallowing his teeth if he did, so he let her talk.

For a while she made a poor attempt at small talk and it was during this time that Ed realized that she was trying to work up the courage to say something; the fact that Izumi Curtis was trying to say something, but couldn't made Ed very nervous: Izumi was, in the opinion of many, a woman with the will of an iron wall set in titanium, so if SHE was nervous about something, then it must be something bad indeed.

Finally she sighed and leaned against a non-wrecked wall and beckoned him over

"Edward" she began after a minute, "Edward I need to ask you to do something, I know it must sound insane, but hear me out: I need you to find Wrath for me."

Ed stared at her for a moment and then asked "Why?! He's a monster, an abomination! He tried to kill you and-"

"And he's my son Edward." said Izumi, giving him one of her trademark glares, which softened after a minute, she sighed deeply and then continued:

"I can't keep living in the state that I'm in, I just want you to find him and tell him that his mother, his Real mother, loves him very much, that she forgives him for his actions and that she hopes that he can forgive her in turn."

Ed stared at his teacher for a moment and then asked in a soft voice, "You said that you can't keep living like this, are you saying that... you're dying?"

Izumi smiled sadly at him, " Yes Ed, I thought you knew about my condition and the fact that it would claim my life later on."

Ed felt tears prick the corner of his eyes, Izumi had been like a mother to him and, underneath all of that harshness and violence, he knew that she cared for him, This can't be happening he thought as the first tears began to trickle down his cheeks, this CAN"T be real, this has to be a nightmare, I'm gonna close my eyes and-

"Aww... poor little pipsqueak" drawled a familiar voice from behind him.

********************************************************************************

Gluttony ran through the wrecked streets, bounding over the chasms that marred the area, his stomach rumbled but he knew he had to keep going, he needed to get Wrath as far away from the mysterious creature as possible.

He didn't see too many people who were still alive, which was sad because he liked his food wriggly, but he did see a lot of corpses, some impaled by iron bars, some crushed to death underneath mounds of concrete and some trampled flat, all of them smelled tasty, but he couldn't stop until he couldn't smell the creature anymore.

He was nearing Central when his nose picked up the Fullmetal Alchemist, his heart raced and he forgot the creature's smell, he veered to the right, leaping over piles of cars and corpses, letting his mouth hang open, drool pouring out and falling to the ground, dissolving it and leaving holes.

Gluttony was getting close, Wrath was still asleep under his arm, alive but as limp as a dead body, the smell intensified and Gluttony sped up as best as he could.

Finally the smell led him to a partially collapsed building, a great deal of the front was caved in, but the smell was so powerful that Gluttony would have burrowed a thousand feet into the earth to find it's source.

Gluttony began to dig and as he did he began to smell other things that accompanied the Elric smell: soap, some kind of flower, fear, blood and a scent that began to overpower the others: determination.

Gluttony plowed through the blockage until he at last was inside the building, within an instant he spotted the Fullmetal Alchemist... no wait, it wasn't him, it was a girl, a girl holding a something silver: a wrench?

Author's note: Ain't no cliffhanger like a double Cliffhanger, the next chapter will be short and will introduce the villain of the story, don't worry I'll resolve the 'hangers soon, buh bye!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 3: A New Era

Deep within the earth, roughly ten miles beneath Central, He opened his eyes for the first time in decades.

His servants had awoken him by killing one of their own and using it's blood to set off a reaction in the pool of solution he lay in, the death of the servant didn't bother him in the slightest; he had many, many more to spare.

His servants made as if to help him out of the pool, but he waved them off and stood up on his own, the solution smelled indescribably vile to all but Himself, with little effort and no pain he pulled out the many tubes that had been inserted under the skin of various limbs or put inside every orifice; he didn't bleed.

"What's the situation Number 22?" He asked in a harsh, tinny voice.

"It is 1939 sir, we have awoken you right on time." said Number 22, bowing low, his clockwork joints clicking and grinding as he did.

"Ahhh... perfect. Tell me, how far has Alchemy advanced since I was put to sleep?"

"It has advanced far better than we could have hoped for sir" said Number 22 excitedly, "The people have created full-grown Homunculi, they have finally made contact with the Gate!"

He laughed and patted Number 22 on the back, "Wonderful!" he crowed, "Absolutely wonderful! Now is the perfect time to find the Philosopher Stones, then we can commence out attack on the above world and bring forth the dawn of a new era, an era of MY design."

He turned and walked towards a group of his physicians, who were waiting anxiously for his orders, He could practically smell their eagerness, he smiled, baring iron needles where his teeth were:

"Get me my suit."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own FMA, if I did that would be the coolest thing EVER! But I don't.**

Chapter 4: Pity and Fear

Winry Rockbell's day was turning into a nightmare.

She had gone to Central to try and talk Ed into coming back home, despite his insistence that he 'had no home', she always got angry at him when he said that, wasn't her home a good enough home for him?

Then the earthquake had struck and she'd barely had enough time to get into the nearest building before the chasms began appearing, now she was being confronted by a strange fat man with white eyes who was looking at her like she was his dinner.

"What d'you want?" she asked the fat man, doing her best to hide her fear.

The fat man gave her a puzzled look, cocking his head to one side like a puppy, finally he said "You're not the Fullmetal Alchemist.", his voice was surprisingly high pitched for such a large man and Winry almost let out a giggle at how ridiculous he sounded, but what he had said sobered her up.

"Are you one of those Homunculi Ed talked about?" she asked him, her grip on the wrench tightening and her muscles tensing in preparation to fight, the fat man nodded and then stuck a finger in his mouth, the act was so childish that she wondered how she could be afraid of someone so weird, but she knew from Ed's non-short rants that the Homunculi were forces to be reckoned with, she remembered asking him more about them, like what their names were and what they looked like, he hadn't told her much, but he had given her some basic descriptions, which was just like Ed.

Winry thought back to the descriptions: there was a shapeshifter called Envy who had spikey, green hair, a female called Lust who had claws, one named Greed who could transmute his skin into carbon and a fat one named...

"Is your name... Gluttony?" she asked tentatively, she had heard that he wasn't too bright, so she spoke slowly and tried to appear as nonthreatening as she could.

Her strategy seemed to work because the tubby Homunculus sat down and gazed at her, then she saw that he had been clutching a child to his body, as if he were a mother protecting her baby, Gluttony looked at her for awhile longer before he nodded, "yes, I'm Gluttony.".

"And who's that?" she asked, gesturing to the boy, she knew that the boy was Wrath, but she wanted to make small talk long enough for her to think up a plan to get herself, and the other people trapped in the building, out safely.  
"That's Wrath, he's really mad at me." said Gluttony sadly, his tone reminded her so much of an upset child that she felt taken aback, but only for a moment;** T**_hese are the creatures that almost killed Edward on so many occasions, they're evil and I've got to protect the other people in this place from this damn freak._

Winry was now almost a foot away from Gluttony, she had always thought that she would smell him by now, but he had absolutely no scent at all, not even bad breath, which she should have smelled considering the fact that he was panting and..._Wait, that isn't panting, thats crying... he's crying?_!, Winry looked at Gluttony's face and saw that he WAS crying, with big tears leaking out of his little eyes and soft sobs working there way out of his mouth.

At first she thought: _Oh crap, if he gets hysterical there's no telling what kind of damage he could do,_ but as quickly as that thought came it was pushed aside and replaced by sympathy when Gluttony said, "Lust is gone and Master is mad at her, I think she's going to hurt my Lust, I wanna help her, but I-I'm so scared of Master!" here he burst into fresh tears and buried his face in his massive hands.

Winry was stunned, Ed had always told her that the Homunculi had no souls, but how could a being with no soul be acting so sad? was he playing a trick? No it couldn't be, she had the feeling that he wasn't bright enough for that kind of thing, she knew that she had to take a chance if she wanted to save the other people from potential disaster.

Moving slowly she gently came up to the weeping Homunculus and rested a hand on his bald head, Gluttony looked up at her, his vision swimming through his tears, "It's okay." soothed Winry, using the same voice that she used to calm Ed down during or after his automail replacements, she used her other hand to gently rub his broad back until his crying died down, by that time Wrath was beginning to stir and a few people had come out to watch the spectacle.

"What IS it?" asked a woman who was clutching her baby to her breast

"I have no clue Martha. Hey! Excuse me ma'am, but what is that thing?" asked Martha's husband

Winry turned around and made hand motions for them to get back, when she turned back to him Gluttony was staring at her in a manner akin to a child that had been given a really good Christmas present, he seemed like he was about to say something when the wall of debris exploded and sunlight, glorious sunlight, shined in, several people rushed out to see what happened and then moved towards the entrance, Winry was about to join them when she saw Gluttony's face become fearful, "Oh no" he said "It's the bad smell.".

The second he said that there was a scream from the opening and Winry turned in time to see a man get pounced upon by something, there was a flash of silver and a crunching noise and the man's screaming died off.

With a bellow the creature stood up and turned towards Winry, who screamed: the creature may have been a man once, but it wasn't any more, it's skin was missing, revealing red muscle and purple veins; bronze braces were bolted to it's arms and legs, it's back was a mess of gears and pumps that whirred and clicked whenever it made a movement; it's head was a nightmarish mixture of glistening, raw skin and shining plates that covered the jaw, pate and cheeks.

It looked at her and she saw that it had no eyes, only odd-looking, telescope-like mechanisms that were shoved into the sockets, had it not been moving towards them she might have had time to notice the glowing, purple light coming from them.

Winry threw her wrench, but the creature caught it and bent it into a metal pretzel without changing it's pace for a moment.

This is it she thought tearfully I'm going to die, goodbye Edward, she closed her eyes and waited for the pain, but it never came; in it's place there was a high pitched roar and the sound of flesh on flesh, Winry opened her eyes and saw that Gluttony was fighting the monster, the creature was slashing at him with a spike that had been grafted onto it's wrist, but every wound that it inflicted healed in a bright flash, it seemed like no time at all before Gluttony had cornered it and beaten it to death.

Winry was so shocked she couldn't speak, a single thought raced through her head: I've been saved by one of my best friend's mortal enemies, what have I gotten myself into?

**Man I loved writing this part! I forgot to do this before, so here it is: Please Review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA: if I did there would be more Homunculi!**

Chapter 5: Meet The Lieutenant

Ed turned to face Envy; the green-haired bastard was leaning against the doorframe with that all-too-familiar smirk on his face.

" I'd get out of here Envy, before I kick your ass so bad you'll need more than those red stones to heal." growled Ed

Envy chuckled, " My, my aren't you feisty today pipsqueak. And here I thought we were friends."

"Can it palmtree!" Ed roared, transmuting his arm into a blade and getting into his fighting stance, the shapeshifter laughed and turned his arm into a scythe-like appendage and charged, the two met at the center of the room with a resounding crash; Ed, fueled by anger, quickly became a living tornado, slashing and parrying and dodging with incredible speed, Izumi tried to rise, but then fell to her knees and vomited blood.

The noise distracted Ed and, against his instincts, he turned to look at her, Envy took the opportunity afforded him and kneed his opponent in the gut, Envy may not have been using his full strength, but to Ed it felt like he had been hit by a truck, the wind exploded from his lungs and he was thrown backwards by the force of the kick.

Ed began to rise, but Envy pinned him with his foot, "Now Pipsqueak" began Envy "you're gonna tell me where your little brother is or I'm gonna make you watch me kill your teacher."

******************************************************************************************************

Envy felt Ed's body go stiff under his foot, if he hadn't been able to feel his rapid heartbeat with his toes he'd have thought he had passed out, Envy turned his arm into a massive tentacle, which he wrapped around Izumi's throat as she tried to fight him, but she appeared to have lost too much blood, Envy was about to start interrogating Ed when he heard a sound coming from behind him: a giggle.

"Whose there?!" growled Envy, turning around, he half expected there to be no-one there, but there was someone, though whoever it was was in the shadows.

"My, My, My, what do I have here? Is that William Elric I see?" said the figure in a voice that was simultaniously raspy and high-pitched, Envy felt his blood freeze, "what did you say?" he asked, to stunned to be angry.

The figure giggled again and then stepped into the light, Envy had seen many freakish things in his life: the pulsating mounds of flesh that were the product of human transmutation, Gluttony eating his victims slowly as they screamed, for mercy Lust impaling the people who were foolish enough to attack them and many other things, yet they all paled in comparison to this one creature: it was tall, taller than any of Envy's siblings, it's limbs were long and unnaturally thin, it wore a leather harness that was covered in steel plates, it's head was massive, malformed to the point of it being nearly the length of Envy's leg and supported by a weave of iron bands.

"I said 'if it isn't William Elric', that is your actual name, isn't it?" said the creature with a grin that showed off it's iron teeth, " Oh! I'm sorry, it appears as though I have forgotten to introduce myself, I am the Lieutenant and my master has sent me to capture you.".

"**How do you know my name?!**" roared Envy, launching himself at the Lieutenant, aiming a kick at his deformed head.

The Lieutenant moved so fast that Envy couldn't see him; one minute he was right in front of him and the next minute he had moved several feet to the right, Envy changed his course and ran at the creature again, this time leaping more than 6 feet in the air to deliver a punch that would go through the Lieutenant's chest cavity, but the Lieutenant caught his fist and used his own momentum to flip him over; Envy landed on his back and pain shot through his body.

Envy began to turn into a snake so that he could wrap himself around the Lieutenant and crush him to a pulp, but once again he was thwarted when the malformed bastard stomped on his throat, Envy felt his windpipe cave in under the force of the blow, but his regenerative powers kicked in a second later, healing him in the span of several seconds.

The Lieutenant watched this with a smirk on what passed as his face, " interesting, my master will just Love seeing me take you apart!"

"Don't count on it freak!" snarled Envy, kicking out with all of his might, the Lieutenant caught his foot and held it firmly in his hand, "You have very nice feet Envy" he said, slipping his fingers between his toes, "They're so soft... too bad I have to do this.", then the Lieutenant wrenched Envy's foot to the side, the pain was incredible and Envy screamed.

Then the Lieutenant bent down and placed his spidery hands over Envy's temples, Envy felt the pain vanish as the universe shrunk to the size of a pinhead... and then disappeared.

*************************************************************************************

The Lieutenant lifted Envy over his bony shoulder and began to walk away when a voice called out

"Hey! You aren't leaving with him, put him down!"

The Lieutenant turned and saw the Elric boy standing with his blade at the ready  
"Do you actually care for him?" asked the Lieutenant with a sneer

"No, but I want answers, you called him 'William Elric', Why?"

"Because that's his name you foolish boy." said the Lieutenant with a grin, "Did your father not tell you about him?"

"My father?", Ed lowered the blade and a confused look came over his face

"Yes your Father, maybe you should ask him."

Ed was about to try and stop the creature from taking Envy, but in the blink of an eye the Lieutenant has vanished, almost like he had never been there in the first place.****

Authors note: thank you to the people who reviewed my story, you get...um...errrr... a cyber cookie :]... Yay

Outtake:

"You have very nice feet Envy" said the Lieutenant, slipping his fingers between his toes, "They're so soft... too bad I have to do this.", Envy closed his eyes and waited for the pain, instead he felt the Lieutenant's fingers scribbling over his soles, Oh no, the Lieutenant was... Tickling Envy's foot! 


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I doth not owneth FMA...Eth?**

Chapter 6: A Deal

Winry was both proud and frightened after she had talked Gluttony and Wrath into helping her.

After the clockwork creature was dead some of the people returned and watched in silent shock as Gluttony ate the creature, gears and all, after that particular horror had been committed he had sat down and placed a finger in his wide, toad-like mouth.

One of the men, a tall man with a black mustache named Marvin, had gone out to see what the damage was, Winry almost stopped him from going as she didn't know if Gluttony would even let anyone pass or if he'd keep them there until another, more powerful Homunculus showed up, thankfully her fears were laid to rest when the fat Homunculus didn't do anything to stop Marvin.

Marvin had returned with an ashen face, "Um... Ma'am?" he asked Winry in a strangled voice, "What is it?" she replied, trying her best to keep a brave face, "You need to see this." said Marvin, licking his thin lips compulsively, Winry followed him and saw what the issue was: a massive chasm ran scar-like from one end of the city to the other, steam from ruptured pipes rose from it's depths and it seemed to be a full 90 yards across, just when she thought it couldn't get any worse... Wrath woke up.

Wrath was, as expected, not happy in any way, shape or form; any people who were out in the open fled in terror as he transmuted his arm into a blade and stalked after them, when he spotted Winry he made straight for her, "YOU!" he roared as he picked up speed, Winry looked around for something to fend him off with and when she found nothing she decided that she had to think of something and fast.

To her utter astonishment Gluttony did her thinking for her: the rotund Homunculus moved in front of her and grabbed Wrath be the throat, a look of shock came over the little homunculus's face as Gluttony began to tighten his grip, Wrath began to struggle and flail his thin arms and legs, Winry, who had no wish to see him get killed, even if he couldn't die, called out "Gluttony! Put him down!".

Gluttony dropped Wrath without any hesitation, the little sin crawled to his feet, rubbing his throat and glowering at the two of them, Gluttony turned towards her and looked down at his tiny feet, ''M sorry." he said, looking and sounding like Winry or the Elrics when they were young and had been caught doing something wrong, that look was so...familiar and nostalgic that she couldn't help but giggle, "It's OK, I'm not mad." she said through her giggles, Gluttony beamed at her, all trace of shame gone from his face.

Winry watched Wrath glare at his brother, "You betrayed us! Master will kill you and I'll get to watch. Then I bet Master will let me and Envy go find Lust and kill her too." he snarled, Gluttony looked like someone had pulled his heart out and crushed it in front of his face, Wrath smirked, but his smugness was cut short when a wrench collided with his cranium.

Wrath fell to the ground and slid a few feet before coming to a stop near the wall, when he looked up he saw a shadow standing over him, a shadow with glowing eyes, "I found my wrench you little monster." said Winry in a low and deadly voice, Wrath was too stunned to speak, a miserable human had just dared to lay a hand on him!

_You were human too_ whispered a voice in his head; _You had a mommy and a daddy and you tossed them aside like trash._

Wrath felt his throat tighten, Winry knelt next to him and said, "Listen up Wrath, you are going to help me find a way out of here, you're going to cooperate with Gluttony and you are going to be nice or so help me I'll brain you a million times with this wrench!", she got up and walked to Gluttony, who was blubbering inconsolably.

_I guess I don't have much choice_ Wrath thought sullenly as he got up, the voice in his head said, _You are the Worst. Brother. Ever_

Winry walked over to Gluttony and rubbed his back as he cried, " Shhhh... it's okay Gluttony... it's okay...", Gluttony looked up at her with teary eyes, "W-Why is Wrath so mean? Will he really hurt Lust?" he asked between hiccups, Winry felt pity well within her and said "Wrath's just jealous of you."

"Jealous? I thought that was Envy's job." said Gluttony in confusion

"He's jealous of you because you're nice and you actually have friends, but since Wrath's mean he'll never have friends." , Winry felt bad for saying that about Wrath, but he wasn't her main concern.

"Listen" she began "If you help us get across that big crack I'll help you find Lust."

"Really?" asked Gluttony, instantly perking up.

Winry nodded her head, "Sure, I mean how far could she have gone?", she gave Gluttony a big smile and without any hesitation he said "I'll help you."  
As he got up Winry felt a pang of worry shoot through her, _What if Ed's injured? What if he's dead or-No! Edward's a strong man and I know he'll pull through, the only things I need to worry about is making sure those two don't cause any trouble and preparing the others to fight off any more of those mechanical monsters._

Winry steeled herself and began to look for bridge-making supplies.****

Author's note: I wrote this whilst listening to the lord of the Rings soundtrack, so I feel that this chapter is more epic, as always please REVIEW! 


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I no own FMA**

Chapter 7: A Perfect Being

The Master was happy.

He was happy for three reasons: One, he had his beloved suit on, Two, he was listening to the sweet melody of agonized screams and Three, his time was almost at hand.

He paced his chamber like a caged animal, excitement flooding his nerves and anticipation buzzing through his mind, He stopped pacing and crossed the room, his boots thudding against the tile, he stepped up to his mirror and examined himself: He was tall, gaunt to the point of being skeletal, his eyes were purple, his nose little more that two slits on his face, his gums were black and he had pulled out his teeth and replaced them with needles long, long ago; he had also removed his finger and toenails as well.

All just steps to achieving true perfection.

For him true perfection meant being all-powerful, all-knowing and terrible to behold, beauty was a shallow facade, a facade which he had all but destroyed decades ago, his new appearance would make men and women, young and old alike tremble in terror at his coming; he would be a boogeyman, a demon, the thing in the shadows that haunted the nightmares of all.

His reverie is broken when the screaming reached a painful crescendo and then went silent,_ The Lieutenant seems to be having fun with our first prisoner, he hasn't been able to torture something in a long time, I just hope he doesn't kill this... Envy before I can extract the stone from his blood._

He returned to admiring himself in the mirror, this time focusing on his suit: it was made from leather and alchemically-enhanced steel, his spine was traced by small bottles filled with red liquid and every inch of the suit was covered in very ancient and powerful Alchemic schematics that very few of the humans would even know about, much less use; it was this suit that allowed him to transmute without a circle and with the red water being injected directly into his core he could make his transmutations more powerful than any alchemist in the world.

He smiled to himself: now all that was left to do was kill the alchemists Dante and Van Hohenheim**.**

Authors Note: Please Review and you shall get... a cyber pizza! 


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own FMA, Also this chapter is a little disturbing, you've been warned.**

Chapter 8: Torment

Envy had always thought that pain wasn't a lasting thing: he was horribly wrong.

He had awakened to find himself in a dimly lit operating room, strapped to a cold table and surrounded by nasty-looking surgical implements, he had tried to shift his form, but to his horror he found that he couldn't, then the Lieutenant had entered and Envy's world had turned into a red haze of pain: every bone in his body had been snapped and re-snapped, he had been lit on fire, had his teeth pulled and had needles shoved into almost every area on his thin frame.

All of that had been bad, but the things the Lieutenant had said were much worse; he KNEW. he knew Envy's true name, his past life and why the name Envy fit him so well, "Poor lil' Will" he would croon "Your mommy uses you like a napkin, your brothers and sisters don't care about you, your daddy has new kids to call sons and d'you know what the kicker is? He's forgotten all about you."

Envy had cried for the first time in decades, tearfully denying all of the Lieutenant's accusations, but deep within his heart he knew that he was right.

_This is a nightmare_ he thought _I have to get out of here, make all of them suffer for doing this to me, Dante will have them ALL killed for this, she has to, I'm her son and the oldest and most powerful Homunculus of them all!_

Envy strained against his bonds, trying to shift his form, to his joy it worked and soon he was in the form of a housefly, he flew away, using the shadows as cover and feeling true relief flooding his system.

*********************************************************************************************

Winry was afraid, even with a nigh-invulnerable homunculus protecting her.

It was utterly silent as they navigated the crumbling streets, now and then someone would trip over debris or a bird would caw overhead, but other than that it was utterly silent, even though there were no sounds Winry suspected that they were being watched and she suspected that many of the others, the homunculi included, could too.

Gluttony had opted to walk beside her, his tiny eyes scanning the buildings, now and then he would stop and sniff the air, when he did that his brow would crease and he would mutter to himself.

After the fourth time he did this Winry finally snapped and asked "What are you doing?"

Gluttony gave her a fear-filled stare and said, "The bad smell is all around us."

Winry's blood went cold and she felt sweat pop up on her brow, "W-what d'you mean 'bad smell'?"

"The bad smell; it smells like something mad and scary, like Master, but not like Master." said Gluttony with a contemplative frown, "What's your name?" he asked out of the blue, _Is this really the best time for this?_ thought Winry, but she told him anyway.

"Winry, Winry...Wwwwwinnnrrrryyyy." said Gluttony, trying out her name on his tongue like a kid learning a new word, for the umpteenth time in the day Winry smiled at Gluttony's childish demeanor, they continued walking and WInry noticed Wrath was lagging behind; with an exasperated sigh she jogged to the back of the group and fell into step beside him,

"What's the matter now?" she asked harshly, not really caring what the problem was.

"What d'you care?" he said, trying to sound tough and mean, but Winry detected a trace of sadness behind it, she might have felt sorry for him, but then he said, " It's not like you've lost your mommy.".

"...Just keep up." growled Winry as she tromped off to rejoin Gluttony, Wrath was slightly bewildered at first, but then he decided that now everyone was against him, even his brother.

_That little brat!_ raged Winry inside her mind _How could he? How could he be so mean?, he can't be that ignorant, can he? I mean yeah he looks like a kid, but he can't really have the mind of one, can he? Maybe I'm just too angry to think straight, I need to calm down._

Winry stopped and turned towards the group, "Okay everybody!" she shouted "I think that we need to take a breather before we head to..." she realized that they had no clue where they were going, conjuring the first thing that came to mind she said "To Central headquarters.", there were no mumblings, everyone sat down happily and began conversing with one another, Winry herself flopped to the ground and tugged her boots off, rubbing her sore feet; Gluttony, who had been standing next to her, crinkled his nose.

"What is it?' asked Winry, still trying to work the soreness out of her feet.

"Bad smell." said Gluttony, covering his nose, Winry looked confused and then tentatively sniffed her boot; it was most certainly a bad smell, but she had the suspicion that that wasn't the smell he was talking about.

Gluttony suddenly tensed, like a dog getting it's hackles up, Winry put her boots back on and grabbed her wrench, the first clockwork creature emerged from the chasm, it's mangled lips pulled back from it's iron teeth in an animalistic snarl, Gluttony gave it a snarl of his own and then, turning to her he asked "Can I eat him Winry?", Winry nodded and Gluttony leapt at it with a yell, this clockwork creature put up a better fight than its predecessor, managing to relieve Gluttony of his eyes before Gluttony relieved it of its head.

The second and third creatures leaped out of a nearby window and crawled down the side of the building like spiders, Gluttony killed both of them, but lost an arm, before he could fully regenerate the limb he was impaled by a harpoon-like projectile from a fourth, Marvin, who Winry had only known for a day, lobbed a rock at the fourth and hit it right between what served as its eyes, it crumpled to the ground and didn't move.

Gluttony tore the harpoon out and ate it as his stomach healed, several people backed away in fear, Winry decided to calm them down before they rioted, "Okay everybody, Gluttony won't hurt you, he's on our side."

"What IS he?!" asked an older lady with an automail leg, Winry had to be careful about this one; if she told them a lie and they found out that it was a lie they would try and kill him, if she told them the truth they would try to kill him anyway, "He just saved all of your asses and now you start freaking out around him?! What kind of humans are you?!" snarled Wrath, stepping into their midst, WInry was shocked; had Wrath just came to his brother's defense? By the look on Gluttony's face, she could tell that he was just as surprised as she was.

Several of the people rubbed the backs of their necks or coughed in embarrassment, the older woman balled her fists, but didn't say anything.

Winry looked towards the sky and saw that the sun was setting fast, a chill wind made her flesh break out into goosebumps; they couldn't go any farther on this night, she had a very strong suspicion that those creatures came out in force during the night.

"Okay people, let's find some shelter, I don't think we would do so well at finding our way to Headquarters in the dead of night."

As the people got up Winry walked over to Wrath and patted him on the shoulder, "Thanks for that, you saved our bacon back there." she said, trying to be as warm as she could, "Whatever." said Wrath, pulling away from her and walking away.

Even though he was back to acting mean, Winry sensed a change in him.

Maybe it would be a change for the better**.**

Author's note: Thanks to Kittenizzy Loves Edward Elric, The Blue rose prince and JewelAlchemist for their awesome reviews, as always Please REVIEW!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 9: Fear the Dark  
  
Martel had thought that her day couldn't get any worse; she was wrong.

Most of Greed's crew had survived, with the exception of Dorochet, who had been crushed under most of the building's roof, Greed had engaged his Ultimate Shield just in time and had managed to cover Martel and Bido; Roa had thrown himself under a surprisingly sturdy table and had avoided a good deal of pain.

After the dust had settled they had found that the entire damn place had fallen into a very large chasm, thankfully they weren't trapped; there was a tunnel carved into the hard earth and they had happily gone that route, that is after they took several non-broken jugs of booze.

They walked in silence for awhile before Bido spoke up:

"Thanks for saving us boss." he said happily, his frog-like mouth stretching in a smile

"Don't mention it. After all where would I be without my best possessions?" Said Greed with a smirk, Martel rolled her eyes, she really hated being called that, but the other's seemed to be fine with it, something that never sat well with her.

As the tunnel continued Martel could feel the temperature drop and it seemed to do so with every step she took, she could see that the others felt it too; Bido was trying his hardest to keep his teeth from chattering and Roa was rubbing his hands; even Greed, who was always cocky and fearless, seemed slightly put off.

Martel felt a stab of sadness when she looked to Greed's right side and didn't see Dorochet: she had been close with the dog-chimera, they had both been imprisoned in Lab 5, had shared a cell too, over time they had formed a lasting friendship and now...

Martel realized that she was crying, she hadn't cried in a long time and her tear ducts felt like they had been clogged with dust, in a way she was glad for the tears; it made her feel... more human.

She started when she felt a hand on her shoulder, to her surprise it was Greed,

"I miss him too." he said with a small smile, Martel returned his smile and thanked him, "Don't mention it" he said dismissively " he was one of the most loyal people I've ever had working for me."

After that they continued on in silence, all Martel could hear was their combined breathing and the drip of water, Roa was in the lead, his hammer gripped tightly in his massive hands, Martel could see his nostrils flaring, it took her a second to realize that he was on edge, she sidled up to him and asked if there was anything wrong, "I can smell something," he said; his words were simple, but Martel could hear the unease in his voice.

She was about to ask him what he smelled, but a clicking noise stopped her and the others in their tracks: the clicking sounded mechanical and harsh, it echoed and reverberated off of the spacious tunnel, making it sound like it was everywhere.

The next few events seemed to happen at the speed of light: there was a loud booming noise and Roa let out a groan, Martel looked down and saw a harpoon protruding from his back, the serrated tip glistening with organ juices, there was a whirring noise and Roa was dragged into the darkness, finally the clicking stopped and Martel did another thing she hadn't done in years: she screamed.

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The hotel was spooky: even with lights.

Winry had found that though the main power had been knocked out during the quake, the generator still worked and would supply them with at least some light, but only in a few rooms, which made the darkness seem somehow alive.

It gave the darkness teeth and claws and twisted forms.

No one was brave enough to venture into the dark, so they all set up shop in the foyer, which was spacious enough for them all, Winry had found several ratty blankets in a nearby storage cabinet and laid them out, half of her group fell asleep within the first few minutes and the rest followed after until it was only Winry and Gluttony.

Winry was surprised when Wrath fell asleep, she had thought all homunculi didn't need sleep, she was even more surprised when he began tossing, turning and moaning, she turned to Gluttony and was about to ask him if this was normal for him, but the confused look on his face told her that it wasn't, Winry tried to ignore it, but then Wrath uttered one word that made it impossible for her not to pay attention:

"Mommy."

Winry had never been told all that much about Wrath except for a few things: He was subject to psychotic mood swings, he wanted Ed's body, he had Ed's arm and leg and he had been made from the remains of Izumi Curtis's son.

THAT little tidbit had taken her forever to get from Ed and he had nearly cried when he had told her, which made her feel horrible for making him tell her, now Wrath was having a nightmare about his mother.

Winry got up and went to him, sweat beaded his brow and his eyelids were fluttering, "Mommy." he whimpered, Winry felt his forehead and found that he was feverish, now she was really worried,_ I thought homunculi can't get sick, what the hell is going on!?_, just then Wrath's eyes popped open and he let out a screech.

Winry threw herself backwards in time to avoid Wrath's writhing limbs, the little homunculus sprang to his feet and ran into the darkness; Winry followed without a moment's hesitation and Gluttony followed on her heels.

The darkness swallowed them whole, Winry knew that there were at least 4 more rooms with light: the kitchen, the pantry, the basement and the attic, _Wrath might go to a place with lights: the attic is too far for him to get to in the head start he's had and the pantry is locked, so that leaves the basement and the kitchen; now which one was closest? Oh dear... the basement, I'm gonna hate this!_

Her hunch was correct, they found the basement door standing wide open, a faint light shone from the bottom, Winry didn't like basements: in her opinion it was a fact of life that most basements were creepy places, with their dank smell and spider population, but she needed to find Wrath and retrieve him.

They found Wrath at the foot of the stone steps, he was clutching his thin chest and panting, WInry drew in a deep breath as she came closer to him, ready to give him the verbal smackdown of the century, but then she stopped and stared, frozen by the horror she saw before her: the basement was filled with corpses, some in military garb, some in civilian, there were Ishbalans and xingese natives, all were different, but all shared a gruesome similarity: they were being eaten by the clockwork things.

Wrath and Winry backed up, trying to be as silent as they could, the second they made it past the doorway Winry closed the door and looked for something to barricade it with.

"We need to get those people out of here. Now." said Winry after she had pushed a table against the door, Wrath nodded and went to rouse them, Gluttony stared at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Winry was about to ask him what the problem was when something began to pound on the door.

*****************************************************************************************************

The Master could feel his creations feasting.

He was glad that they were having fun, after all, they had been imprisoned for a very long time.

The Master paced his chambers; _It will only be a while longer_ he thought gleefully _And then I will cripple this world and rule it as I wish, I- H_e heard a buzzing, he looked around until he saw the source of the buzzing: a housefly.

_How odd, most insects die before they can get this close to me, unless.._. He focused on the fly's eyes and found them not to be red, but deep violet, a smile crossed his face and he laid a hand upon the wall, there was a flash of red light and a box was transmuted around the fly, trapping it.

He grabbed the box and ripped it free from the wall, he put his mouth to it and said:

"Listen to me Envy, son of Hohenheim and listen well: you have a part to play in this, I need a way of powering my subjects, to do this I need that special blood of yours, with it I will make my subjects even stronger than they already are and I will teach these pitiful humans to truly fear the dark." ****

Author's note: Damn that was long! I think this is my longest chapter yet :} Please Review and I will see you soon!


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 10: Release the Beast

Wrath knew that he was going to lose some lives when he heard the screams.

He had been paralyzed with fear at the sight of all those dead people being eaten by the clockwork creatures, he hadn't felt fear since... since the Gate.

He remembered the crying, HIS crying, he remembered the Gate Creatures and their broad, toothy smiles, he remembered that woman placing his tiny body at the Gate and then the swarm of little shadow hands dragging him in.

Wrath shook himself out of his remembrance, _I'm a homunculus! I'm better than those stupid humans, so why am I acting like one? Why am I even helping this Winry girl? She's the girlfriend of that bastard Edward, I should let her die! No... I-I can't, I don't know why, but I feel like I should help her; what is happening to me?_

Wrath looked around, desperately looking for something to transmute his arm into, there was a crash and Winry's screaming got louder, then his eyes landed on the fire axe; it was sharp and deadly-looking, it was perfect.

He transmuted the axe and his arm, resulting in his arm becoming a fleshy tentacle with an axe handle worming its way out of the skin, Wrath ran to the location of the screams and found Winry and Gluttony being menaced by at least 20 creatures, Gluttony was shielding her from their harpoons and had already taken at least 5 to his body; with a bellow Wrath launched himself at the throng.

He beheaded two of the beasts and disemboweled a third before they could react, but they were far from helpless against his onslaught and Wrath found himself dodging and parrying the blades of the creatures, each one were almost atr Pride's level and they began to draw blood from him, Wrath saw Gluttony charge them and bring one down, then three more, Winry looked paralyzed by fear; Stupid girl can't even defend herself thought Wrath contemptuously, one of the creatures saw an opening and took it, Wrath felt pain coarse through his stomach as the thing eviscerated him.

He looked up and saw that the thing was the creature he had disemboweled, Wrath saw the other non-eaten creatures that had been killed rise up.

****************************************************************************************************

Winry saw the tide of the fight begin to turn in the creatures favor, she knew that she had to do something, but what? She wasn't as good a fighter as either of her superhuman companions, who were fighting a battle they wouldn't win against creatures that couldn't die, what did she have to offer?

It was when she saw one of the creatures go down clutching several severed and dripping tubes that she realized what she could do.

"Gluttony!" she called, he turned towards her while using his massive hands to fend the blades and harpoons of the creatures, "Go for those tubes on their necks and backs!", Winry had a theory that the fluid in the tubes was a major component to their bodies, like blood; Gluttony seemed to have heard her, because he nodded at her and bit into a cluster of tubes on the neck of one, her theory was confirmed when it went down, wheezing and spluttering as black fluid sprayed from the tubes, it took awhile for it to die, but it DID die.

She told Wrath the same thing, for a minute he looked like he was going to question her, but instead he sliced through the tubes on ones back, it went down in a mini geyser of fluid.

She felt both prideful and happy at her accomplishment: she could lead.

*******************************************************************************************************

Gluttony obeyed Winry's instructions and bit into the tubes, the fluid in them tasted as sweet as honey to him and he craved more; he grabbed another and drained the tubes, then he grabbed another and another and another until there were only about 3 left, but those 3 didn't last too long when they fought Wrath, as Gluttony watched his brother kill the last creature he felt a sin outside of his voracity bloom in him; pride.

_Little brother did so well, I'm glad that he's helping us, maybe he'll be nicer to me afterwards, like Lust... or Winry._

Gluttony liked Winry, not in the way Lust or Greed liked people though, he liked her as something he hadn't had in awhile: a friend.

He hoped she could be his friend too.

********************************************************************************************************

The Master saw the carnage through the eyes of his creations and let out a roar.

How dare those pathetic beings kill his creations! He had made 40 of them in preparation of this day and now half of them were gone!

He could make more, but that would take a while, in the meantime he needed to find something that would destroy those filthy beings.  
He walked found the Professor and asked him to release Subject 221, the Professor barely had an inch of flesh on his face that wasn't mutilated or enhanced with machinery, but his hesitation was strong enough for Him to smell it, 'Do it of your own will Professor or I will force you to do it, he won't hurt me and you should know that.", the Professor nodded, took out a key ring and began to jog towards the cell block where all of his failed experiments were kept.

He could smell Subject 221 before he could see him; 221 carried a rank and feral stench with him, the door was unlocked and The Master entered, the Professor stayed as far away from 221 as he could.

"Listen up 221, I'm going to let you go, but you must do something for me, you must find the people who stand in my way and kill them." He put his hands to 221's mutated head and transferred the mental images of his enemies into his mind, then he clasped his hands and said, "I am going to rename you, I doubt that you like those silly numbers, you shall have command of my remaining forces so I will call you... The Captain."

The Captain's maw stretched in a grin and his purple eyes glinted with the kind of sadistic glee that only the evil get.****

Author's Note: If you review I will give you TWO cyber pizzas... with stuffed crust ;] 


	11. Chapter 11

**The Usual Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, try pronouncing the acronym, it's fun.**

Chapter 11: Another Team Up  
  
Edward was more tired than he had been in a long time.

After The Lieutenant left with Envy Ed had stayed with Izumi until she could walk again, they had escaped the crumbled portion of Headquarters and run into Armstrong, who had enveloped him in one of his bone-crushing hugs that had been "**Passed down from the Armstrong family line for generations!.".**

Armstrong had taken them to Colonel Mustang's office, where he had been given the usual barrage of questions, after Mustang was satisfied he let them go, Izumi, being a headstrong old bird, refused any medical attention, though she did go through several cups of coffee.

After that Ed had been given some... somewhat disconcerting news: Al was missing...again.

Ed knew that he had to find his brother and that made him furious; _I have to find that bastard Hohenheim and make him tell me about Envy! _

At first Edward had thought that the Lieutenant had been lying, but then he remembered one of the first things Envy had said to him: "I can never forgive you... and there will never be a time that I can forgive you for carrying that Bastard's blood in your veins!" , after that Ed had begun to think that the Lieutenant was right, now he had to find Hohenheim.

Ed was snapped back to reality by Armstrong hugging him, "OH YOU POOR CHILD! ALPHONSE IS GONE AGAIN!" he roared through tears and sparkles, "Let go damn it, you're gonna break my ribs!" yelped Ed, the giant man put him down and mumbled an apology, just then Lt. Hawkeye entered with a worried look on her face

"Edward, there's someone here to see you." she said in her usual no-nonsense tone

"Who?" asked Edward

"Me." spoke a breathy voice from behind Hawkeye, Lust stepped into the room with her usual grace, she smirked at Havoc's love-stricken gaze, Mustang looked at her funny and turned to Edward, "Are you going to introduce me to your girlfriend Edward?".

"Edward looks to speechless Colonel Mustang, so I'll introduce myself, I'm Lust."

Roy raised an eyebrow, "I take it you're one of the homunculi, are you going to attack or are you gonna deliver some message from your higher ups?"  
"Why Colonel I'm offended, you think that because I'm a homunculus that I would attack you? Actually I have a proposition for Edward." Here she turned to him and her expression became grim, "Do you remember what I said about wanting to be human?

Ed nodded, wondering where she was going: _did she have Al as a hostage?_

"I want to help you find your brother, but I want you to help me be human, If you do find the stone I want you to make me human, will you accept my offer?"

Ed looked into Lust's eyes, it didn't look like she was lying, he nodded and she smiled in relief, "Thank you." she said "I'll be waiting outside.".

The second she left Mustang turned to him with fire in his eyes, "What are you thinking?!" he hissed, all calm gone from his face, "She's the enemy, she'll lead you into a trap or...or something!", Edward shook his head and said "No she won't, you heard what she said about wanting to become human, I was with her the night she told me that and I didn't think she was lying then and I don't now.", with a rather dramatic turn he left the room, Izumi followed suit.

Mustang kneaded his temples, "Riza, will you please follow them and keep an eye on them." he phrased it more as a statement than a question, but Riza told him yes, she grabbed her gun, checked to see if it was loaded and left.

**************************************************************************************************

Hohenheim of Light arrived in Central just as his second youngest son left Headquarters.

He used alchemy to create a bridge across one of the many chasms and left it there, _Maybe someone else will use it._ he thought as he walked along the silent streets, he heard a noise from a nearby alley and tensed in preparation for a fight, after a few minutes of nothing happening he peeked his head around the corner: there was a small form huddled next to a dumpster.

Hohenheim approached the form and called out to it in the softest voice he could muster, "Hello? Are you hurt? i'm an alchemist, I can help."

The figure got up and trotted into the light: a dog.

Hohenheim chuckled as the dog yipped happily and licked his hand as he let it sniff him, he rubbed its shaggy head and then turned and began to walk, the dog followed him.

The odd duo crossed the road, Hohenheim creating another bridge as he did, he headed towards Central headquarters, _I've got to find my sons he thought as his walk turned into a jog, knowing them they'll have seen those damn creatures and will be investigating, they have no clue what kind of person they're dealing with, I hope I get there in time._

He saw the headquarters looming before him and he broke into a run when he saw Edward and that dark-haired homunculus walking away from the place, What is he doing with that creature? he thought as he increased his speed.

********************************************************************************************

"Hohenheim?" asked Ed when he saw his father running towards them, waving his arms, a dog at his heels.

"Edward" panted Hohenheim " What are you doing *huff* with that homunculus *huff* and where's Alphonse?"

"Al's missing and me and Lust are gonna go find so if you don't mind..." said Ed angrily, brushing past his absentee father, forgetting about his questions in his anger.

Usually when this kind of thing happened Hohenheim would let his son go with a sad look on his bespectacled face, but this time he grabbed Ed by the collar and turned him to face him, "Have you seen the creatures?" he asked in a low voice, Edward gave him a surprised look, "I saw some tall guy with braces and a mutated head called the Lieutenant, he appeared when I was about to fight Envy, he called Envy William Elric... do you know anything about that... daddy?!"

Hohenheim looked shocked, then he sighed, "Yes, Envy was made from the remains of my first son William, over 400 years ago" he proceeded to tell them about his wife before Trisha, a woman named Dante, how Dante and he found out the way to create the Philosopher's stone, how he had had a change of heart and tried to stop her, he also told them about the method to killing the homunculi and how the stone could be used to make near perfect chimera.

By the time he was done Edward, Lust and Izumi were shocked, angry or disbelieving, Edward trembled with rage, "So thats it huh? You helped Dante kill hundreds of people so you could be immortal and on top of that you left her with YOUR SON?!" he roared those last words and grabbed his bastard father by the throat, "I can see why Envy hates you! You left him like you left us! I almost feel bad for the palm-tree headed son of a bitch! You two deserve each other!"

Edward saw that his words had crushed Hohenheim, but he didn't care; let the bastard be crushed, it was the least he could do.

They walked off, leaving Hohenheim sitting on the ground, the dog licking the tears off his face.

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The Master could sense the new person in the city; he could tell that this person was truly a man after his own heart, _I must find this person and bring him to my side, he would make a great ally._

The Master concentrated and saw through the Captain's eyes; the brutish creature was close to his prey.

**Author's note: thanks to madcat153 and DXRough for reviewing.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.**

Chapter 12: Nightmares.

**_He was standing in the spacious foyer of Dante's mansion, somewhere a clock ticked in time to his heartbeat, he heard a skittering sound by his feet and he looked down to find the ground covered in fog, Wrath thought the fog looked somehow... alive, it roiled and pulsated and didn't shift when he kicked at it._******

**_Suddenly the clock stopped ticking, Wrath held his breath and clenched his fists._******

**_There was a scream and then... a gentle melody began to play, it was sweet and yet morose, a woman's voice began to sing with the music, but he couldn't hear the words_****.**

_WRATH..._  
_WRATH COME TO..._  
_WRATH COME TO MOMMY..._****

**_The voice was familiar, but Wrath couldn't remember the face that went with that voice._******

**_A figure rose out of the fog, was is Sloth?_******

**_No, it was someone else, someone with pale skin and fiery eyes, Wrath remembered her name: Izumi Curtis._******

**_What was she doing here?_******

**_Wrath tried to call to her, to ask what happened to mommy, but no words came out, suddenly the fog cleared and he could see that the ground was swarming with insects of a species he didn't recognize: they were bronze-colored and looked like they were about the size of his head._******

**_One of the bronze insects began to crawl up his leg, its legs were silver and sharp at the ends, like needles_******

**_Wrath grabbed it and lifted it up, he could feel something warm hitting his palm so he turned it over: it had a human face._******

**_The face was neither feminine nor masculine, like Envy's face, it eyes were black voids and its mouth was a toothless oval, Wrath dropped it in terror._**

**_The insect was on its back and it was speaking though its mouth didn't move;_**_ COME HOME OR BE ALONE FOREVER_**_ it told him, then the insect flipped over and scuttled up his leg, followed by another and another and another until he was covered with the swarming creatures, he could feel their tiny, hot breathes on his skin as well as the occasional drop of saliva, then they began to bite._******

"NO!" screamed Wrath as he bolted upright from his sleeping spot, it took him only a second to realize where he was, chilly sweat covered his body and his hair plastered his face.

'Wrath, what is it?" said a soft voice next to him, he started and whipped his head around to see who it was; to his surprise it was Winry.

_Why does she care? I thought she hated me. I bet she just wants me to go to sleep so I don't wake the others_. he thought to himself.

"Nothin'" he snapped "Go back to bed, I won't wake the others."

"Wrath... if there's anything you want to talk about, just tell me okay?"

Those words shocked him, now he was really confused: _Why would she want to listen me talk about my dream, unless that's not what she wants me to talk about. If that's the case then what DOES she want me to talk about?_

Wrath waited until he heard Winry sigh and lie back down again, then he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Thankfully, he didn't dream.****

Author's Note: Sorry for the shortness of the ch-  
Ed: WHO YOU CALLIN" SO SHORT HE COULD RIDE A FLEA?!  
{Pushes Ed away}  
Please review and you shall receive... a Gremlin!  
{seriously this Gremlin is eating and destroying everything, please take him off my hands D:}


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own this wonderful anime known as FMA**

Chapter 13: To do good

Gluttony was hungry again.

Oh how he wished he could eat one of the people in the group, for a while he wondered why he DIDN'T eat one of them, after all, they were meaty and they smelled nice, but then he figured it out: Winry wouldn't want him to.

He remembered actually asking her if he could eat one of them, she had said "NO Gluttony, if you want me to help you find Lust you have to be good, which means No. Eating. People"

Gluttony wondered about what it meant to be "Good", did it mean just not eating people or did it mean something more?

The group had left the hotel and were nearing headquarters when Gluttony turned towards Winry and asked "How do you 'be good'?"

"You mean besides not eating people?" asked Winry, Gluttony nodded

"Well... you could help people do things, you could bake someone something, you could...rescue someone?" she saw that she wasn't getting the message through well enough, so she tried a different tactic, "what, besides eating, d'you think is good?"

"Ummm... making Lust happy?" said Gluttony uncertainly

"Oh, well making someone else happy is good!" said Winry in a kind voice, Gluttony perked up "I like helping the others too!" he exclaimed

"That's great!" said Winry a little too loudly, several people stared at her like she had grown a second head, she blushed and ducked her head.

They continued to walk for a while longer before Winry turned to her chubby friend and asked a question that had nagged at her mind ever since she met him, "Can you ever get full?"

Gluttony seemed to consider this and then simply said "No.", then he put his finger in his mouth and stayed quiet.

_The poor thing! I wonder what it must feel like, never feeling not hungry, no matter how much you eat she thought as she walked._

_I really need to find the best meaning of 'good' to tell him, I don't think he gets it_

Gluttony felt frustrated, he needed to know more, but Winry couldn't give give him a good answer.

As he walked an idea struck him: maybe he could watch what Winry did as well as ask the other people, surely they would have at least SOMETHING to tell him.

Gluttony smiled: confident that he would soon find out what it meant to be good.

**************************************************************************************************

Envy flew over central in the form of a bat, happy to be alive.

That stupid freak in the suit had just let him go, he would pay for torturing him like that, but Envy had a bigger priority: finding Dante and telling her what she needed to know.

As he flew he savored the cool wind on his transformed body, for some reason most of his wounds still hurt, how was that even possible?

He passed over Dublith and was almost to Dante's mansion when a thought hit him out of nowhere: _What if what that big-headed freak said about mother was true?_

The thought was so foreign to him that he felt his wings go numb, he only regained control of them once he realized that he was plummeting towards the ground; _Where did THAT come from?_ he thought as he swooped towards the ground, transforming back into his preferred form as he did, overhead thunder boomed and cold rain began to splatter against his skin, Envy shifted into a wolf and bounded into the woods.

As he bounded through the thickets and bushes his mind wandered back to his thought; _It's true that Dante isn't always fair to me, but she's my mother and she's the only one who stayed with me when that bastard left and had those other brats. I owe her my services and my life._

He finally saw the mansion looming out of the trees and he increased his speed, the second he got to the front door he shifted to his preferred form and sauntered in, Pride and Sloth were waiting for him in the foyer, "Where is she?" he asked,

"She's in the library Envy, she'll be... unhappy with you for not retrieving Wrath and Gluttony." said Pride with a smirk, Envy returned the smirk and said "I've got some very interesting news for her and I had to suffer to get it, so don't keep her waiting...Puppet.", usually Pride would have just taken the insult, but this time he grabbed Envy by the arm and spun him around, pinning his arm to his back and causing no small amount of pain

"Listen Envy" began Pride in a dangerous voice "I have a country to run, a country that has just been subjected to the worst disaster in my lifetime, even my higher-ups are getting worried and I have to calm the people or else there will be a riot. I have had a VERY bad day and if you keep pressing me I'll tear the stone right out of your body and crush it!"

Pride let him go and marched away, Sloth just stood there, looking bored beyond words, she hadn't even flinched when Pride attacked Envy.

Envy went into the library, Dante was sitting in her chair with a book in her lap, Envy could smell the sickly-sweet stench of her body rotting away, he had known about her body-hopping for a long time, but he was still nauseated by the smell, "Master, I have news." he said, "I hope it pertains in some way to the fact that you haven't returned with Gluttony or Wrath." she said simply.

Envy nodded and began his account, as he went on he noticed Dante's face darkening, by the time he was done explaining she was livid, "You, my greatest creation, who has lived for 400 years and has never been caught, was not only captured, but tortured and released and you didn't think there was anything wrong with that?"

Envy was about to respond, but before he could Dante slammed her hand down and caused a pillar to shoot out of the ground, it slammed into his gut with enough force to launch him into the air and slam him into the floor several feet away, he scrambled to his feet in time to be impaled by a spike, the spike disintegrated and Envy ran out of the room with his master's angry roaring following him.

**Author's note: It will take a little while longer for the next chapters to come out, because I am going to write several chapters and then post them all at once, why? I've no clue, please review and I shall give to thee ten leaping rabbits and a pear in a partridge tree!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or FMAB**

Chapter 14: More Meetings

Gluttony fell behind Winry and sidled up to Marvin and his wife, Marvin gave him a look of uncertainty that turned into one of perplexed bemusement when Gluttony asked him "How can I be good?".

"Well... you could see if our baby likes you, my mother always said that only good people get babies to smile." said marvin's wife with a smile, she held her baby out and Gluttony took it, his massive hands easily engulfing the infant.

Marvin looked lividly at his wife, sure that his wife had made a bad mistake, but the baby cooed and giggled, Gluttony beamed at them "It likes me!" he said with a broad grin, he then handed the baby back to the wife and waddled back to Winry.

*****************************************************************************************

Winry was proud of Gluttony, she hoped that the baby thing would sate his need to know what "good" meant.

She heard a noise close by: it sounded like shrill shrieking, she listened closer and heard a voice shout: WHOYOUCALLINSOTINYTHATASHRIM PSEYEBALLCOULDDWARFHIM!?; It's Ed! thought Winry excitedly.

Winry found Ed seething at a smirking woman dressed in black, his teacher and... Hohenheim?

_What's HE doing here? And why is there a dog following him?_

Hohenheim looked far worse than he usually did, his eyes were red and puffy, his shirt was muddy and there was a welt on his cheek; _Ed wasn't the one who hit him, was he?_

Ed turned and saw Winry, a big smile enveloped his face, the smile vanished instantly when he saw Gluttony, with a clap of the hands he transmuted his hand into a blade and readied himself to fight, Gluttony's tiny eyes widened and he took several steps back.

Before any fighting could happen Winry placed herself between the two and gave Edward her best death glare, his angry look was replaced by a look of confusion, "Umm... could... you move...please?" he asked awkwardly, "Nope, you aren't going near Gluttony." Winry said in a very good impression of Izumi, "Why is he with you?" asked Ed.

Gluttony watched as the two argued, then he heard a cough and turned, there was Lust, looking healthy and bemused, "LUST!" cried Gluttony, bounding towards her and enveloping her in a big hug, Lust was too surprised to fight back, finally she composed herself and said "Hello Gluttony, it's good to see you too."

"Okay...What's going on?" asked Ed, Winry gladly told him the entire story, stopping only to prevent Ed from attacking Wrath when he showed up; she told him about the creatures and their weaknesses, the horrific encounter at the the hotel and her talk with Gluttony.

After she was finished Ed had to sit down, Winry sat beside him as he rubbed his forehead, "First Alphonse goes missing, then Envy and that big-headed freak show up, then that bastard comes back and now all this. I-It's too much." he said softly, Winry began rubbing his back as he let the stress take its toll "I-It's not fair!" he wept, "Why does all of this crap keep happening to me?! What if Al's dead o-or t-t-trapped? Why does Envy hate me?! Why, why ,why?!" the rest of his talking was lost among his tears, Winry held him close and tried her best to comfort him.

Hohenheim came over and sat on Ed's other side, after a minute he said "Listen Ed, I know that I have a lot to atone for, I would like to start by doing something I didn't do before." then he hugged his son, Ed was too upset and tired to struggle, so he went limp in his fathers arms, Winry continued to rub his back, then Gluttony came over and gently patted Ed on the head.

********************************************************************************************

Envy paced his room like a caged animal: Dante had never killed him before, Envy had had slip-ups before, but she never did more then raise her voice and threaten, he had seen her kill most of the others, but he thought he was special.

_I need to make this right, I owe her, maybe I'll find Alphonse first, if I bring him back I'll be on Dante's good side._

Envy smiled and walked to the window, he threw it open and transformed into an owl; as he flew away he didn't notice the hulking figure standing outside one of the ground-level windows.****

Author's Note: I finally did it: I made my most dramatic chapter yet! Please read and review and I shall... make more chapters :D 


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA blah blah blah excelsior**

Chapter 15: Understanding the Enemy

After Ed was finished crying he fell into a deep sleep populated with some of the most horrific nightmares he had ever had: Mother's corpse clawing at him, Alphonse being captured by shadow beings, his blood seal disintegrating and blowing away like sand in the wind...

Ed awoke with a blood-curdling scream, Hohenheim and Winry were by his side before he could blink, "Son are you okay?" asked Hohenheim, his brow furrowed with concern,  
Y-Yeah, I'm fine." said Ed shakily, massaging his temples and scrunching his eyes closed in a futile effort to forget the horrid dreams.

Ed regained his composure and looked around to see what everyone else was doing: Gluttony was by Lust's side again, Wrath was laying on his back and looking bored.

The group had set up shop in an apartment to decide what to do, Winry told Ed that they were waiting for him to wake up before they started.

They sat around the largest table they could find: with Winry and Hohenheim on either side of Ed, Lust sat across from Hohenheim, with Gluttony and Wrath on either side of her; Ed noticed Gluttony casting odd looks at Winry, Is there something I should know? Ed thought.

"Okay, we're here to discuss what we're going to do next." said Winry, "I should probably start by saying that if we plan to move to another location we should do it during the day, those creatures seem to only come out at night."

"Wait, I have a question" said Ed "What do we know about these things? In general, I mean."

Winry seemed to ponder the question for a moment, then she said "We know that if the tubes in their necks and backs aren't severed they will come back to life. We know that they look like they have clockwork parts in their flesh, it almost seems like the clockwork acted like automail, I mean... it had replaced some of their arms and legs."

Ed took several moments to take this in, then he said "We need to capture one if we want to know what we're up against."

To his surprise most of the company were behind the idea, they agreed that knowing more about their enemy would help them in fighting them and maybe figuring out who was behind their appearance; the only problem was finding one.

They decided to wait for dark and then train a cluster of lights on one spot, Lust and Gluttony would flank it and Wrath and Ed would help trap it, so all they had to do was wait.

Night came to Central with the usual speed that it did during the summer.

Ed stared out at the starry sky, fireflies buzzed around him now and then, he could hear bird calls in the distance and a warm breeze ruffled his hair: it was hard to believe a major disaster had happened, it looked like any other Amestrian summer night.

The cluster of lights that the group had acquired were stationed outside, dozens of moths were gathered around the beams of light, their tiny bodies casting shadows on the cracked pavement.

As Ed waited he began to doubt the plan: _What if one doesn't come? What if they're onto our trap? What if more than one of them come?_

No sooner than the thought had entered his mind, he heard a noise to the left of him, he stiffened and watched as a hideous...thing shambled into view: It was one nasty looking thing, it was skinless, maimed, eyeless from what he could see and seemed to have various tubes and pieces of metal covering its body, it was missing both arms and legs, each stump ended in a long blade.

The creature scuttled on the ground like a spider, the blades scraping along the pavement, it went to the lights and encircled them, it poked and prodded them and then seemed to get bored, as it turned to go a claw shot out of the darkness and severed the cluster of tubes on its back; the creature writhed on the ground for a solid minute before dying.

Ed and Gluttony rolled the body onto a blanket and carried it inside, where they had prepared a table for its body to be examined on.

There was a chorus of hissing intakes of breath, gasps and muttering when the creature was placed under direct light; it just seemed to be less nasty when it was in the dark, Winry bent over the creature, "I was right... the limbs ARE like automail, just very...different from ours, but just as good." she said as she moved the creature's left arm up and down, checking in between the plating to look at the gears inside.

"Look at its eyes." said Lust, they looked and saw that it actually had eyes, which was a surprise to those who had met them before, but the fact that the eyes were intact wasn't the thing that caught her attention, it was their appearance: they were violet and the pupils were reptilian, just like the homunculi.

"What the... are these yours?" asked Ed with narrowed eyes, Lust shook her head, "There's just us seven, if the old bat had made others, we would have known."

"Ed... look at the stuff in the tubes." said Winry, Ed noticed the urgency in her voice and looked at it: the fluid was crimson and glowing

"It can't be..." said Ed in a voice barely above a whisper, he could see several oval objects floating in the liquid, "Red Stones; these things must be homunculi."

"But that's impossible!" said Wrath "We're the only ones, besides Pride, Greed, Envy and Mommy.", Winry noticed Ed glare at Wrath, "She's not you mommy she's mine!" he snapped, "You abandoned her!" snarled Wrath "You abandoned her and now she's MY mommy.".

Ed launched himself at Wrath, but Winry caught him and held him back, Wrath laughed like a little boy who just beat all the other kids at a game and was gloating, thankfully Gluttony hammered his massive fist down on his head, the little homunculus collapsed to the ground, only to rise again with his eyes alight with anger.

He charged at Gluttony with a yell... only for Lust's claws to impale him, Wrath slumped against the claws and went limp, Lust retracted the claws and turned to Ed, "I'm so sorry for that." she said sincerely, "I knew Wrath would pull something like this, he's useless without Sloth. We should leave him here, it'd serve the little bastard right."

Ed shook his head, " No, he might help us later. We need to find the person who created these things, Hohenheim, do you have any ideas?", they turned to the bearded man.

Hohenheim stroked his beard and said " I think we should find Dante, maybe she's been lying to you, she's good at lying.", most of them nodded, Lust started to speak, but a crash drew their attention to a shattered window and a bare patch of floor where Wrath had been laying.

"Uh-Oh." said Gluttony

" We've got to find him, if he gets to Dante first, he could cause some very big problems." said Lust.

********************************************************************************************

Wrath ran as fast as he could from the building, the pavement was cold under his soles and the wind began to pick up, he was fed up with being mistreated, what he had said about Sloth was true, she WAS his mommy and no one would take her away from him.

If that wasn't bad enough those damn bastards had talked about leaving him and going to find Master, but he would get there first he would-

Wrath hit something hard and fell to the ground, there was a deep laugh from above him and then... nothingness.

******************************************************************************************

The Captain lifted The Boy up by his ankles and carried him off, Master would be very pleased with him for catching one of those homunculi.

Maybe Master would let him eat The Boy.

Yum Yum****

Author's note: Thanks to DXRough for giving me the idea for the last bit with Wrath and the Captain, as always please read and review and I shall bestow upon thee... Envy's underwear!  



	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 16: Shunned

Envy couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't feel.

Dante, his mother, his master, had betrayed him, she had killed him and forced him out.

Where would he go?

Even if he caught Alphonse, who was to say that the pipsqueak or someone else would screw it up?

He sat, unmoving, on a tree limb, the wind was bitingly cold, but he didn't care; he had to fix things.

But first he had to return to the mansion and get his remains, he knew that they were buried in the garden, next to Gluttony's remains: _Why would she put my remains next to that simpleton?_ he thought as he jumped down and transformed into a snake, _I'm the oldest and most powerful, my remains should be put in a safe or a locket or something, just not buried in the mud._

He reached the mansion and slithered into the garden, he transformed into a mole and began digging; halfway through Dante picked him up and roughly hurled him away.

"I thought you'd try something like this" she said coldly "I told you to leave, why didn't you?"

Envy transformed into his preferred form and knelt in front of her, "Please master" he begged "let me make it up to you, please don't send me away, I'm your son... Please." he once again felt tears slide down his cheeks.

Dante sighed, "You are right, you are my son, but you may have harmed my plan irreparably, take your remains and leave."

Envy felt his blood go cold, She couldn't be serious, could she?

He would've tried to defend himself, but he knew that Dante's word was law, so he dug out the fingerbone that comprised his one true weakness and left as a dog.

_Maybe she'll forgive me, after all I am the most powerful homunculus, I have to be vital to her plans, right?_

When he couldn't think of an answer he fled into the night.****

Author's note: Sorry for the short chapter, I hope you like it anyway, next chapter will have Greed! Please review and You'll get the Marker from Dead Space, please make us whole.  
I don't own Dead Space either. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or anything like it.**

Chapter 17: Imprisoned

Alphonse sat in darkness, listening to the rats scurrying around him.

The quake had struck when he was out getting the paper for Ed {he could be so lazy sometimes}, it had sent him tumbling into a chasm, he had lost his chalk during the fall, so he couldn't draw a transmutation circle to create a set of stairs or a ladder or something to get him out of the damn thing; he had thought all of that had been bad, but the appearance of those creatures and his subsequent capture proved him dead wrong.

Now he was in a dark cell filled with rats, the creatures hadn't bothered him since they put him in the cell, thankfully.

His mind began to wander:_ Who ARE these creatures? WHAT are they? They can't be homunculi, are they chimera? No, I don't see anything animalistic to them, I hope brother hasn't met any yet._

His thoughts were interrupted when two very familiar people were chucked into his cell

"Martel?!" gasped Alphonse, the snake-girl's grimy face broke into a grin, "Alphonse!" her grin fell and a look of sadness replaced it, "They got you too, is your brother here as well?"

"I don't think so, I was out getting the paper when the quake happened."

"And since you can't do alchemy without a circle we're screwed." said Greed, getting to his feet and dusting himself off, he was splattered with blood and his trademark smirk was gone, Alphonse gasped, "Did they get through you armor?", Greed gave a mirthless chuckle and shook his head, "Nothing can get through my Ultimate Shield kid, the blood is Roa's, one of those freaks shot him with a harpoon." he sighed and sat down.

"I'm so sorry Greed." said Al, sounding taken aback, Greed shook his head, "He was the strongest of my crew, besides Dorochet.", they sat in awkward silence for awhile after that.

***************************************************************************************

The Master stood over the remains of half of his creations, it had taken hours for those that remained to located the corpses and bring them to him.

Flies were already swarming around their wounds and the red stone fluid had coagulated in their tubes, the Master sighed and cursed under his breath, the Professor came over, the Master could smell his anxiety radiating from him in waves, _Disgusting_ he thought sourly _the Professor is too much of a worm for my liking, I'll need to talk to him about... toughening up, very soon._

"W-What d'you want me to d-d-do with th-the bodies M-Master?" the Professor asked, rubbing his hands together.

"I want you to take the undamaged areas and build me something... big. I'm sure you don't need any specific instructions, just give it several tons worth of armor plating. Oh and give it a weapon that's a little more... damaging than a harpoon gun or blade."

The Master left the Professor's lab and went to the torture room; the Lieutenant was sitting on a stool, cleaning a very long blade set with barbs, "What do you need Master?" he asked, not looking up, "Can you 'see' what the Captain is doing right now?" the Master asked, the Lieutenant nodded and closed his eyes for a moment, when he opened them a grin split his sallow face, "He has the homunculus boy."

The Master smiled, "Good, I hear that out of all of them he's the most... special. How close is the Captain?"

"He's already here Master." said the Lieutenant with a smirk, the Master chuckled and started to leave, but the Lieutenant called out to him, " The boy in the armor bares your mark." , the Master stopped and slowly turned back to the snickering torturer, "What did you say?" he asked in a cold voice, the Lieutenant shrugged and said " Your mark is painted on his armor, I guess you really did have an impact on them."

The Master looked at him coolly and then said " Don't weaken your hold on the Captain, we need him fully under our control for this.", then he left.

**********************************************************************************************

Alphonse was wondering when the awkward silence would end when the cell door opened and a gigantic creature entered with a very familiar enemy slung over his massive shoulder.

The creature was all muscle and no skin, it's eyes were purple, it's hands and feet disproportionately larger than the rest of its body, its stomach and ribcage were exposed and it walked with a severe limp; _He looks like... like Mother after we tried to bring her back thought Al_; if he could have gagged he would have.

The creature threw Wrath to the floor and left without a word, when he turned Al saw that its spine was exposed.

Greed looked at the unconscious Wrath and sighed, "Looks like I found both of the people I was looking for, but now I can't use them, what is this world coming to?"

"Should we wake him up?" asked Al

"I don't care what you do." said Greed, laying back and closing his eyes.

Al looked at Martel, who just shrugged, then he shook Wrath awake, Wrath leaped to his feet, ready to fight, "We don't want to fight." said Al, holding us hands out in a placating manner, Wrath snorted, "Yeah right, I remember you being one who tried to kill me because I was 'a monster' and now I can pay you back for that.", Wrath leaped at Al with a twisted grin, a grin that faded the second Martel wrapped her arms around his chest, pinning his arms.

Greed got up and stalked towards the trapped homunculus, he took off his sunglasses and looked Wrath dead in the eyes, " Listen Kid." he said, putting emphasis on the word 'kid' "Maybe the reason he called you a monster is because you ARE one, we're homunculi Kid, 'Monster' is the least nasty thing we can be called, so why don't take a nap and calm yourself the hell down before I get mad."

Wrath quieted and then said in a small voice "I'm not a monster.", Greed scoffed, "Oh really? So I guess most humans have sharp teeth, purple eyes and can't die, if that's the case then yes, you're definitely a human." , Wrath looked at his feet and didn't answer, but the trembling of his shoulders gave his anger away.

"We need to get out of here." said Al "anyone got any ideas?"

"We could jump the big guy when he comes back in." suggested Martel

"So you want to commit suicide?" quipped Greed, this started an argument between the two, while this was happening Al looked around the cell to find a weakness, ANY kind of weakness, even though he had looked it over several times over; then he remembered what Wrath could do and then a plan began to form in his mind...****

Author's Note: I am so sorry for not updating sooner D: The sad thing is that now that the plot is thickening it might take a while longer for me to update. Please review and critique and I shall give thee... a mini-Sloth!


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 18: Haunted  
  
Roy Mustang sat with his head in his hands, muttering angrily to himself, "Are you okay?" asked Breda worriedly, Mustang lowered his hands and shook his head "I'm an idiot, I could have asked that Lust woman about... about who killed Hughes, but I was too caught up in all of the excitement, I need to know who did it."

"How d'you know that Lust knows? Couldn't she be in the dark just like you?" asked Falman

"She's a homunculus!" snapped Mustang " I bet you dollars to doughnuts that one of them committed the crime and I should've known from the start. There's just so much he could have lived for." the last part he said quietly as he hung his head, Breda sighed and walked over to his boss, he laid a hand on his shoulder and said "Don't worry, we'll catch the son-of-a-bitch who killed Hughes."

Breda sounded so confident that Mustang felt a little better, but he knew that he had to find the killer himself.

*******************************************************************************************

Envy trudged through the forest, the mud squelching between his toes and the rain slicking his hair down.

It had been maybe four hours since Dante expelled him.

And two hours since Hughes started to follow him.

Envy remembered Hughes, he always remembered the people he killed, that is, he remembered people who died with looks of horror and agony on their faces; in other words: most of the people he killed, Hughes was one of the most recent and one of his favorites, Envy loved it when he could use a person's loved ones as weapons.

But now he was starting to regret killing him now that his ghost was dogging every step he took.

_Envy had started to see him when he got out of the woods and was nearing Dublith, Hughes was sitting on a rock and staring at him with glowing eyes that never once blinked, he was dressed in tattered funeral clothes, his hair was matted with cobwebs, his face was already beginning to crumble and slough off and his bullet wounds were filled with worms._

_"Hello Envy" said Hughes in a surprisingly normal and cheerful tone, "Go away!" hissed Envy, backing away, Hughes ghastly smile was replaced with a look of concern "Is something bothering ya pal? Wanna talk about it?", "Go away!" he repeated, covering his ears in an attempt to block out the overly cheerful voice, but the voice broke through the silence, "I had a kid Envy, did you know that?", "Shut the hell up!" bellowed Envy, digging his fingers into his ears and bursting the eardrums in the hope that the pain would distract him from the rotting ghost._

_It didn't work and Hughes kept talking._

_He told Envy about the special dinners his wife Gracia used to make him every few weeks, about the cute laugh Elicia gave when he let her win at various games, how the whole family would snuggle together on cold nights and how they would each read bits of their favorite stories in silly voices until Elicia fell asleep; as he spoke Envy began to feel something growing inside his chest, it was a feeling that was totally foreign to him and it hurt._

_Envy ran as fast as he could, but he couldn't outrun Hughes, the apparition stalked him relentlessly, never giving him a moments rest, Hughes wanted something from him and he had no clue what_ it was.

Now Envy was walking through the dreary streets of Dublith, the rain had dissipated, but the cold remained and it clung to his body like a shroud; he knew that he was coming unhinged, but he was starting not to care.

The only thing that mattered to him now was finding a way to bring Hughes back to life.

He just needed to find his annoying half-brother and then everything would be alright.****

Author's note: Please read and review and I shall give to thee... a second breakfast! 


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 19: an Act of Heroism

Gluttony could feel a sense of unease creeping up his spine as he and the group walked through Central, they were nearing the train station, Gluttony had a feeling that there wouldn't be any trains though.

Gluttony looked around for any reason to feel threatened in the way he was, all he saw were houses and apartments that were almost devoid of life signs with the exception of the occasional scared face peeking out from behind curtains, some of them seemed to be looking at him, Are they scared of me? Why?

Gluttony looked at Lust, who was walking ahead of him and looking bored, it was obvious that she was deep in thought, Should I leave her? WIll she care? Should I ask her? No, Lust won't want me interrupting her thinking. After a few moments of contemplation he decided to leave her side and ask the one person he knew would know answer his question: Ed.

The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the heat was as intense as it usually was, It's barbaric thought Ed but it's home... kind of. he looked at Winry, who was at the front of the group, he felt happy to see her again, his mind wandered back to when they were kids; Winry could be shrill and annoying, but she could also be kind and caring, she had shown more of the former back in the day, but that just made the good times all the better.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed Gluttony was walking right beside him, Ed started and was about to clap his hands when he remembered their alliance, "What do you want?" he asked, "Why are the people scared of me?", Ed stared for a moment, trying to process the unexpected ...intelligence of the question, he had expected Gluttony to ask him if he could eat someone or something like that, but this type of question was just...shocking coming from him.

He considered telling him that it was because he was a fat, creepy-eyed eating machine, but if he said that Winry would probably kill him considering they had become friends or something , he took a second to think and then said "Maybe it's because they think you're a monster-but you're not! You're not a monster!" he said hastily as he saw Gluttony's face fall " Listen... if you help someone, maybe they'll like you better?" he finished weakly.

Gluttony nodded his head and smiled, but the smile quickly turned to a frown and he looked at Ed and asked "What can I do?"; Ed tried to think of something, but couldn't.

When he didn't answer Gluttony sighed and fell back to where Lust was, she looked at him with interest and said "What were you talking about with him?", "I wanted to know why the people were afraid of me and he told me that I had to help someone."; Lust raised an eyebrow, "Why do you care if they're afraid of you?" she asked with a hint of confusion in her voice, Gluttony shrugged and kept walking.

Gluttony wished he could help someone, but no-one seemed to need help, they all seemed to be talking among themselves, he sighed and tried to keep up with Lust.

Three minutes later Gluttony got his wish.

********************************************************************************************************

The group stared at the train station in shock and horror, "Well" began Lust in a shaky voice "It looks as if we won't be leaving by train.", Ed was too shocked to get angry.

A train been derailed coming into the station, the metal monstrosity had annihilated the station, leaving barely any structure and scattering debris and bodies dozens of meters away, Ed could barely breathe, Winry was holding her hands to her mouth and Lust was just staring, but Gluttony was sniffing the air intently, he began to walk towards the wreckage, ignoring the shouts of the group from behind him, he disappeared into the destroyed station and for the longest time they didn't hear anything except their own breathing.

The seconds turned to minutes and still they heard nothing, Lust and Winry began to move towards the station at the same time, Ed saw worry in their eyes, he started forwards himself, readying himself for an attack of some kind.

Just as they were within a few feet of the station there was a tremendous crack and they saw a massive piece of concrete being pushed away from one of the larger mounds of rubble, Gluttony came out of the mount, covered in dust and carrying something under an arm, Gluttony smiled at them and waddled towards them, "Look what I found Winry!" he said, showing her what he was carrying; it was a girl, she was obviously in bad shape, with her left arm bent in a painful-looking angle and her scalp was lacerated, but she was alive.

Winry looked at Gluttony and held out her arms for him to give the girl to her, he complied and then went back to the mound, returning with two more injured people before sitting down; as the others tended to them Winry walked over to Gluttony and crouched next to him, "Were there any more people?" she asked softly, Gluttony shook his head, "No, the rest were dead. I could smell them rotting Winry."

Winry patted his pudgy arm, "Don't worry, you still saved three people, that makes you a hero!" she said as happily as she could, Gluttony gave her a small smile before getting up and waddling off to check up on the people he rescued.

Lust watched from the shadows as the scene unfolded, she wasn't sure what to think, she liked Gluttony for his childish mind and unwavering loyalty, but she had noticed a drastic change to his personality; _I need to see where this goes_ she thought as she watched him accept a pat on the head from the little girl.****

Author's note: here is another chap for you peeps 8D Please read and review and you'll get the one ring... maybe. 


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 20: Downfall  
  
Pride had thought that the humans outside of headquarters had hidden away like rats in a wall like they always did when something bad happened, but he was wrong.

This surprised him... and annoyed him, he looked out of his window at the mass of angry people who were banging on his gates and calling for him to come out; no, not calling, DEMANDING, _How dare they!_ thought Pride angrily as he watched them _How dare they make such demands, I am their fuhrer damn it! I am one step away from having my men kill them for this insubordination!_ Pride got up from his seat and walked to the secret door in his office, muttering to himself as he did, the door opened and he began the long walk down into the massive underground city that Dante had used as her headquarters for as long as he had been alive.

He finally got to the city and walked around the dusty ruins of a bit, trying to clear his head and think up a strategy, he sat down on a fallen pillar and thought, "What are you doing Pride?" came the cold voice of his master, Pride started and got to his feet, "Master! What're you doing here?" he asked, feeling fury at the break in his calm demeanor, "I came here because I need a place to draw my creations back, I can feel something something I can't explain, it's almost like a shadow has come over Amestris, I am somewhat worried."

Pride started at her; _The Master is... worried? That can't be! She made us, she made me! She is the strongest alchemist in the world!_

Dante stiffened, her eyes widening, "Who are you?" she hissed at something behind Pride, Pride turned and saw two people standing on a ledge not ten feet away from him, _How did they get there? My Ultimate Eye would have detected them._

One of the two figures stepped into the light and his hideous face was revealed, Dante gasped, "You!", the man smiled, showing his needle-like teeth, "Me." he said simply, "I see that you've created homunculi, how long did it take you, a decade? Two?", Dante seemed to flinch, but she quickly regained her composure and said in the coldest voice she could muster "Kill them Pride."

Pride smiled and removed his eyepatch, exposing his Ultimate Eye, he drew his swords and readied them, the needle-toothed man motioned for the other person to come forwards, this one was also a male, with a swollen head, braces on his limbs and a crooked leer on his deformed face, he dropped to the ground wordlessly and advanced on Pride.

"I hope you're ready to die old man." said the big-headed freak, Pride snorted, " I don't think you know who you're dealing with boy, I am the leader of Amestris and I am the most powerful of the seven; in other words: you are a dead man walking!" he launched himself at the freak at top speed, he saw the freak tense and move aside, but Pride twisted his body and changed his direction, he swung the swords with a yell, the freak used his arm braces to block the blow.

Pride kicked the freak in his pot belly and took another swipe, his one sliced through both of his cheeks, the freak howled and doubled over, Pride went in for the kill, but an invisible force hit him square in the chest, knocking him back several feet, Pride's mind instantly began to analyze this new turn of events; his opponent could use alchemy to change the wind flow, creating a sort of force field around himself, Clever thought Pride with a sneer but not clever enough.

Pride sprang into the air, driving his swords into the ground in front of the freak, Pride saw the shock wave coming and leaped again, using his swords as leverage he landed right next to the freak, who seemed busy trying to collect the severed crowns of his teeth, Pride punched him right in his misshapen head, the freak let out a cry and collapsed, Pride retrieved his swords and aimed for the killing blow as the freak lay sobbing on the ground, being Pride he knew he had to gloat

"Awww what's the matter, afraid of death? If this is the best your master can throw at me, he'll need to send something bigger.", he was about to continue when the sobs dissolved into maniacal laughter, another shockwave hit Pride, but this one was much stronger and Pride was thrown into a nearby pillar, the freak stood up and popped a few joints before stalking towards him, "I'm the Lieutenant, remember that name old man, because it's the last one you'll ever hear!"

The next few shock waves bounced Pride around like a rubber ball, slamming him into the ground again and again, his regenerative powers helped, but it was still painful.

The freak smirked " I wonder if your son knows your secret, what's his name... Selim? Does he know that your remains are in that safe if he does know your secret.", "How do you know that?" Pride asked as he got up, "I have special abilities, just like every one of you, mine are just better."

Pride lunged and the freak caught the sword in his palm and snapped it in half, the other sword slashed across his chest, but he didn't flinch, the freak placed a palm on Pride's chest and blew him apart in a cloud of red; the shockwave was as loud as a tank blast.

*****************************************************************************************************

The Lieutenant licked the blood off of his hands and sauntered over to Dante, who was looking like her whole world had come crashing down around her, which was probably true.

His smirk disappeared when an alchemical spike pierced his shoulder and threw him into an old alcove, the Master clapped his hands and pressed them to the ground, instantly a hoard of faceless stone puppets materialized and advanced, Dante created a stone dragon.

The dragon whipped it's tail into the puppets, destroying half of them, the other half leaped on the dragon and began to tear chunks out of it, but it rolled over and crushed the rest of them, "Looks like I have the upper hand!" crowed Dante, the Master sighed and shook his head, "That was just the warm-up Dante, let me show you more of my power.", he pressed his hands to the ground and created a spider half the size of the room, it dismantled the dragon and scuttled towards Dante, who ran.

The Master smiled and leaped off the ledge to land on the spider's back, he looked over to the alcove and mentally beckoned the Lieutenant to awaken, then he set off after the cowardly old crone.

There will be blood tonight! thought the Master as he focused his mind on Dante's fearfully beating heart.****

Author's note: Please read and review and I'll award thee... a plush Ed that comes to life at night! 


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

Chapter 21: Escape  
  
The Captain trudged along the corridor to the cell block, his mind was in a daze; _What am I? What am I supposed t'do? What is this place?_ He didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but suddenly he didn't care; it was like his mind was freezing over and in the span of mere nanoseconds he was a mindless beast.

He opened the cell containing the two homunculi, the chimera and the metal boy only to find it empty, he walked in and let his eyes scan the length and width of each wall, he touched one of the walls and found that it was hard stone, it was only when he was in the center of the room that he realized that the room was slightly... smaller than it was before; his eyes widened and he turned to leave, but the walls and ceiling moved down and forwards at once, crushing him and trapping him.

Alphonse, Wrath, Greed and Martel emerged from behind the fake wall they created, "I told you it would work." said Alphonse happily, Greed and Martel congratulated him; Wrath gave a small smile despite himself.

They ran from the room, ignoring the Captain's beastial roars, Greed was the fastest of them and was making good headway when he suddenly stopped, the others came to a halt behind him and Martel stalked towards him, looking like she was about to berate him, but her expression went from angry to concerned when she saw that he was shaking.

She walked around him and found that he was staring ahead with an expression that was blank, yet sad.

There was a gasp and a thump from behind her and she turned to find Alphonse cradling Wrath, who was shuddering and wheezing, "What's happening?" asked Alphonse in a tone that betrayed his fear.

Martel shook her head numbly, "I don't know." she said as she watched the two shake and shiver "But we have to leave now." she said in a firmer tone, Alphonse nodded and picked up Wrath and Martel took Greed by the hand and began hauling him down the corridor.

Behind them the Captain stopped roaring and started to claw and dig.

*******************************************************************************************************

Sloth was lounging in her room when a blinding flash of pain erupted in her head, the pain was great enough to cause her to double over, it escalated to the point where it felt like someone was shoving hot needles into her eyes.

She felt her body chemistry change, she felt every hair on her body melt into water, followed by her bones and then the rest of her, she had always controlled her powers, but now the pain had overridden her basic bodily functions, she became a writhing and rippling puddle.

*******************************************************************************************************

Envy was running through the muddy streets of Dublith when the pain hit, at first he thought he had been shot, but when he turned around and scanned the area he didn't see a shooter, the pain hit again, this time it was so powerful it made him collapse in a heap, this time he stayed down, it was like his skin was overheating, his bones were crumbling and his blood was turning into ice.

Just before the pain made him black out he felt a strange emptiness take residence in his being.

*******************************************************************************************************

Winry was tending to the little girl's arm when she heard Gluttony scream.

She told the boy who was working with her to finish the job and then she ran out to see what was going on: Gluttony was on his hands and knees, vomiting explosively and sweating buckets, Winry ran to him to ask him what was wrong, only for him to wave her back.

She turned to Lust, who she assumed would tell her what was going on, only to find her kneeling on the ground, covering her ears.

Winry Looked between the two and then knelt next to Lust, Winry pried away Lust's hands and asked her what was wrong, Lust looked at her with eyes that went from having a blank expression to being filled with tears, "Dante" she said "Dante is dead."

Author's** Note: Dun dun duuuuuunnn! Sorry for the wait, thanks to icevomp, In The Forest and madacat153 for their previous reviews. Please read and review 8D**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA  
Warning: some cursing and sadness {maybe it's a little late for a warning in this story}**

Chapter 22: Doubt  
  
The physical pain had subsided, but the emotional pain had only increased for Envy.

Dante was dead, he could feel it.

Dante: his master, his teacher, his mother.

Dead

Probably killed by Edward or that bastard Hohenheim or that weakling Lust, "Damn those fucking roaches!" he screamed through his tears, he slammed his fists into the pavement, creating deep craters, he kept pounding and smashing until his hands broke; then he stopped and got up, then he began to run.

His feet pounded in tune with his heartbeat, he turned his fingers into wicked claws and made his teeth fangs; as he ran he thought back to his re-birth, the smoke and light, the acrid stench of burned flesh, the agony as his lungs re-inflated, the sting of his flesh knitting itself together, his eyes blurring as his tear ducts kicked on, then he remembered Dante's warm hands lifting him up and depositing him on a bed; Dante had told him about his bastard father abandoning them both.

That's when William Elric died and Envy was born.

Now, 400 years after his father had left, his mother was dead, he was alone.

_Just like Ed_ said a voice from deep within his subconscious Y_ou're both pretty similar when you stop to think about it._ Envy ran faster and tried to block the voice, but it seemed like his efforts only made it worse; _What the Lieutenant said was right, you know that, right? Dante may have been your mother once, but she was a tyrant before the end._

_SHUT UP! he thought at the voice She was always my mother and the pipsqueak couldn't handle the fact that I had a mother and he didn't, so he killed her_

_I think you're denying the truth, I think you were blinded by your need to have something that someone else could envy, rather than the other way around, you are Envy, you are jealousy made flesh and that is a cold and unforgiving fact I know, but it IS a fact._

Envy tripped and went sprawling to the ground, he wept as he lay in the mud, it seemed like he had done a lot of that lately, but he didn't care.

"What's wrong?" came the voice of Hughes, Envy curled into a ball and sobbed harder, "J-just leave M-me alone... Please." he said through his tears, he heard Hughes sigh and then he heard him say "D'you want to know why I'm haunting you? It's because I want you to feel bad for killing me and for all the other bad things you did."

Envy looked up and saw that Hughes was gone.

_Was I wrong? About everything?_ _No! That's human talk! I'm better than them! I'm going to find the pipsqueak and kill him, then I'll find some way to resurrect Dante and everything will be good again, yeah, that's it._

Envy dried his eyes and got up, walking past a rotting Hughes who was giving him a disapproving expression, Envy's mind was slipping and he was going to try to take his half-brother with him.****

Author's note: A li'l double feature for ya :D Please read and review, If you recognize what I was referencing with the whole talking to oneself thing you shall get... one cookie to rule them all!. 


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

**Chapter 23: A warning**

Winry sat with Gluttony as he wept, she gently rubbed his back and tried her best to soothe him, but it was obvious that the death of his master had rendered him inconsolable, Lust had wandered away to be alone and Ed was sitting on the ground, deep in thought; everything was silent.

_I feel so bad for him_ thought Winry as she patted the sobbing Gluttony _He must have been really close to her, I should ask Ed if he'll go talk with Lust, I'm probably gonna be with Gluttony for awhile._

She began to think back to when she and Ed were little; how they used to comfort one another after their individual tragedies, Winry would hug Ed or Al when they had their awful nightmares and the brothers would comfort her in the same fashion.

Winry sighed and lifted Gluttony's head so that he was looking at her, "It's going to be okay." she said calmly, "No it's not" whimpered Gluttony, shaking his head "I don't know what to do now, what do I do... I'm lost." he finished in a low voice, Winry hugged him and whispered "You aren't lost, you have me and Lust and everyone else in this camp."

"How quaint." said a voice from the entrance to the tent cluster that they had set up.

Winry turned around to see a tall, thin man wearing a red body suit, the suit was covered in alchemic symbols and small bottles of red liquid that glowed faintly, his teeth flashed silver as he gave her a wicked grin.

Winry's voice came out as a whisper, the man excluded an air of menace, "Wh-who are you?", "I am the Master of those creatures you've been fighting all this time, it's a pleasure to meet you.".

Winry felt her blood go cold, "What d'you want?" she asked in a tiny voice, the Master smiled, "I am here to give you, and everyone else here, a little warning: desist in your pursuit of me or I will slaughter you all like the lambs you are, change is coming like a wave and every one of you will be swept away." the Master turned to go and then, just before he left, he turned around and said "I would check up on that little girl in the tent if I were you."

Winry raced to the tent, the girl was shivering in her bed, her wide eyes staring at the twisted body of the boy she had left to tend to her, his head was cleanly severed.

Winry screamed and covered her mouth, the girl's eyes rolled up in her head and she fainted dead away.

**Author's note: sorry for the wait, I'm currently working on a story for my school's lit mag, thanks to jewelAlchemist for her awesome review. Please read and review and I shall give to thee a working dragonball or something.**


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA

Chapter 24: The Bronze Beast

Gluttony watched as they buried the boy's body; he didn't know the poor kid, but he knew that what happened was wrong and cruel, Gluttony felt sadness creep into him, "This is bad" he said aloud, drawing looks from Ed, Winry and Lust, "We need to get the bad man for him, cause-cause the bad man killed him!" finished Gluttony, breaking out into tears.

The others stared at Gluttony with surprised looks, then Ed said "I agree, we need to find this person and end this bastard's game .", Gluttony saw Lust nod her head in agreement, Winry nodded too, but then a look of doubt crossed her face "How will we find him?"; Gluttony smiled a bit, "I think I can still smell him, he smells like bad things." here his brow knitted and he sniffed the air, then he pointed straight ahead and said "He's over there, I think."

Ed nodded and then turned to Lust "D'you know where the other homunculi are?", Lust shook her head and Ed sighed "I thought that Dante and this 'Master' would kill each other, I mean... they seemed to have similar goals, but now I have to face the truth: we have to stop him... I just hope that Al forgives me, cause it looks like I'm not gonna get the philosopher's stone.", Winry patted Ed on the back as his face fell.

It took him a minute to regain his composure, but when he did he stood tall and said "Lets end this."

Alphonse ran along the passage with Wrath slung over his shoulder.

It seemed like the littlest homunculus had reacted to Dante's death the worst, Greed had stopped shaking, told Al about the death of his master and was better immediately after, which confused Al; so, as they were sneaking through the maze-like corridors Al asked "Why did you and Wrath act like that when she died?"

"We were created by her, we have separate minds and wills, but we have a kind of link to Dante, so when she died we kinda freaked out-Shhhhh there's something coming." they hid behind a large pipe ( one of many that jutted from the earthen wall) as something walked past them, Alphonse had to stifle a gasp: he hadn't seen this one yet, it was mostly shadowed, but it seemed like it had more than two legs.

After it had disappeared Al, the two homunculi and the chimera raced off as fast as they could.

Ed watched as Gluttony bounded along like a hound that had picked up a scent (which was a very proper analogy), he had led them in a long and winding path, _Damn he's fast_ thought Ed _I hope he stops soon._

Just as the thought entered his mind Gluttony stopped in front of the deepest chasm that they'd seen yet and pointed downwards.

"Oh no, no no no no NO!" shouted Winry "we are NOT going down there."

Ed rolled his eyes, "Why are you chickening out now Winry?" he asked with a small smirk, "Because I don't know how deep it is or what's down there, there could be spikes or more of those things down there just waiting to ambush us."

Ed's brow creased in thought for all of 3 seconds before he snapped his fingers and grabbed someone's flashlight, then he transmuted some of their blankets into a rope; he tied the flashlight to the rope and lowered it into the chasm, then they waited, above him Ed heard a crow caw harshly.

There was a loud, metallic clang! and the group gathered around, the flashlight didn't offer much illumination, but Ed could make out the dim shine of bronze, _What the hell is that?_ he thought, he quickly located another flashlight, this time he used his alchemy to increase the wattage, this one's light was much stronger and he could see rivets and ribbing.

Then the metal pulsed outwards with a deep rumble and Ed caught a glimpse of glistening organic material .

Ed sucked in a breath and then met Winry's eyes, "There's something living down there, something very, VERY big."

The crow cawed again as the beast began to breathe .

**Author's note: Whut a tweest! Don't worry peeps, the next chap will have more Envy and Wrath! Please read and review 8D**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

**Chapter 25: Fury, Guilt and Remembrances**

Envy could see Edward now.

It had taken awhile for Envy to regain his composure after he realized that Dante was dead, she may have thrown him away like trash, but she was still his mother; at first he had been overwhelmed with sadness, but that didn't last too long and it was replaced with the blackest hatred Envy had ever felt, it was stronger than his hatred for Hohenheim or Greed or any of the foolish humans who tried to stop him.

The hatred was for his pint-sized half-brother.

Envy had turned into a crow and flown with speed he didn't know he had, now he was watching the little brat from his perch on a street lamp, he cawed at Ed, the pipsqueak looked at him, but didn't react.

Good.

Envy was slightly curious as to what they were looking at in the chasm, but it didn't really matter all in all, but still...

Envy prepared himself for the kill, clacked his beak and... was immediately hurled to the ground when another, if not much smaller, quake hit.

Envy cawed in fury and began circling the pipsqueak, then he saw a tiny patch of what was down there.

It scared him.

Envy looked at Ed again and decided to bide his time just a little longer, after all: now that Dante was gone Envy had all the time in the world.

Wrath awoke with a scream.

Alphonse nearly dropped him in surprise, Wrath hyperventilated and shook like jelly for the next few minutes, despite Greed telling him to shut the "little brat" up Al found that he couldn't do it, there was just something so... unlike Wrath in those mewling whimpers, because of his cries they were forced to take shelter in a nearby room.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Martel, Greed sighed in exasperation before saying "I don't think now is the time to deal with the little runt, we should just leave him; more than likely he won't be able to accept the fact that Dante's dead, he'll be a basket case."

Alphonse stood up and clenched his fists "No, I won't leave him, it... it isn't the right thing to do, Mother taught us to do the right thing no matter what, leaving Wrath behind would be just as bad as leaving you or Martel. I'm going to wake him up.", Alphonse went over to Wrath and gently shook him awake.

The young homunculus groaned as he sat up, after a minute of rubbing his temples he looked up at Alphonse... and then looked away, Al cocked his head, "What's wrong?" he asked in his best motherly voice, Wrath hesitated before looking him in the eyes, Alphonse was shocked to see tears in his eyes.

"I...I'm sorry" said Wrath in a soft voice " I'm so, so sorry, I've been so... bad, I-Mommy, I tried to kill her!" here his eyes widened and he began to shake " I remember, I remember Her, She was my mommy, not Sloth. I tried to kill her" he started sobbing, Alphonse felt distressed at the look of misery in his eyes " S-s-she actually c-cared f-f-for m-me and I tr-tried to KILL HER!" he practically screamed those last words as he buried his head in his hands and wept.

Alphonse hugged Wrath as he cried, Wrath told him how sorry he was over and over, Alphonse held him until his sobs became hiccups, Greed looked stunned by the outburst and Martel had joined Alphonse in comforting Wrath without him knowing.

After Wrath had dried his eyes Alphonse asked "How do you remember Izumi when you didn't before?", Wrath shrugged, Greed rolled his eyes and said "I bet it has something t'do with the old hag's death.".

Alphonse nodded and was about to respond when they heard a deep, rumbling moan that was so loud it shook the walls, "W-what was that?" asked Wrath, "That sounded like a roar." said Martel, Greed shook his head again "That didn't sound like a roar... it sounded like...like a yawn."

Greed looked Alphonse dead in the eyes and said "I know that this is obvious, but we need to get out of here. Right . Now"

Alphonse, Wrath and Martel nodded in unison.

**Author's note: Take THAT Wrath haters :3 I love the character and I really wanted to make him even more of a Woobie than he already was, I hope I did a good job, let me know by reading and reviewing! **


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

**Chapter 26: Into the Depths**

Gluttony walked down the alchemically created stairs that Ed had made, his nostrils flaring with every sniff he took, the smell was bad, it was indescribable in its rankness.

The bronze giant was still obscured by the darkness, but Gluttony could make out a large bulky mass that seemed to pulsate slightly every few second: the path that Ed was creating was a couple of yards away from the bronze giant, but the ripe stench of him was all-encompassing.

Gluttony looked at Lust, who was walking a few feet ahead of him, he waddled after her and, when he caught up with her, he looked at her face and saw that she looked... sad, "Lust, why do you look so sad?" he asked, Lust sighed "You wouldn't understand, Gluttony." she said wearily, Gluttony frowned and, for the first time in his life, he disobeyed a request (or order) from Lust.

"Lust... you know I'm your friend right? I know that you're MY friend, Winry says that friends tell each other when they get sad, I know that you're sad, Lust... tell me what's wrong... please?"

Lust clenched her fists and turned to him, 'Because for awhile now I've been... obsessing about becoming human. Now I'm feeling... different, like something got taken out of me and something else got put in in its place, I just... I just don't know how to feel right now." she seemed to deflate and Gluttony laid a massive hand on her back and gently rubbed.

* * *

Winry walked beside Ed, she saw that his skin had turned pale and sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead_, Is he getting sick?_ she thought worriedly _And if so... what's causing it?_, Winry lightly touched Ed's arm and said "Hey Edward, are you okay? You look a little bit sick" , Ed smiled at her, "It's just the strain, I've never made a pathway like this before, I mean, I've made mini-mountains before, but this is ridiculous!".

Winry smiled at Ed's attempt at humor and slipped her hand into his.

Ed's smile could have lit up the darkness surrounding them.

Envy slithered behind the group in the form of a cobra, _Soon_ he thought _soon I'll get that little son-of-a-bitch._

His reptilian mouth curled into a manic smile and his fangs began to drip.

* * *

Alphonse, Martel, Wrath and Greed had found and freed Dorochet.

Now they were running from something that they couldn't see: something big , but very fast.

They could hear it's footsteps pounding after them, they heard its animalistic roar and saw the pinpricks of purple light behind them, Alphonse and the others turned down another passage just as Ed accidentally made a hole in the wall ahead of them.

After the dust settled the two groups looked at each other in astonishment, then...

"BROTHER!"

"BROTHER!"

Edward and Alphonse hugged each other fiercely, Greed raised an eyebrow when he saw Gluttony smiling and clapping his hands, Alphonse let go of his brother and hugged Winry.

"I'm so glad I found you! You had me worried for a bit." said Edward

"Me too." said Alphonse happily, the two hugged again.

Greed rolled his eyes, "This is heartbreakingly beautiful and all, but can we go? 'Cause last time I checked there was something very big and pissed off chasing us."

As is on que, the pissed-off thing in question walked around the corner, each and every member of the two groups either gagged or stood in stunned silence: this creature wasn't one entity per se, it was several entities, the bodies of the creatures up above, that had been stitched into one, very large, humanoid form.

Its roar blasted from the mangled maw that served as its mouth and it charged.

* * *

Riza Hawkeye heard the roar just as she was coming to the end of the path that Ed had created, she had been following them for awhile, watching as they made their way to the chasm, she had kept her sights on the two homunculi for most of the first few days, but over time she began to notice the two artificial humans acting... like actual humans, she had begun to actually think of them as such.

She had also noticed the seemingly random animals that were following the group,

At first she had thought nothing of it, but after seeing a single crow, spider, bat, cat, a dog and several other bird breeds, she began to get suspicious, then she had seen a cat turn into a dog and had realized what was going on: Envy was following them, now she had another threat to worry about besides those creatures that she had fought off on several occasions (although they seemed to be gone now).

Riza had been following Envy in his snake form to find out whether or not he was working with the others, then the snake had disappeared, now she was heading towards a monstrous roar to give any help she could.

Clearly this was going to go well.

* * *

Ed had been too shocked by the beast's face to see the cannon that served as one of its multiple arms until it was pointing right at him, he created a wall just as the first rocket fired, the rocket blew the wall to pieces, the shockwave was so strong that it lifted Ed right off of his feet; luckily Alphonse was there to create a giant hand to catch his big brother.

Greed saw the rocket aim at Martel and, with hardly a thought as to what he was doing, he engaged his Ultimate Shield and leaped in front of her, the blast didn't leave a scratch on him, as to be expected.

_Hmmm... I guess the old bag's death IS affecting me, and here I thought I was exempt._

The beast charged and aimed a kick at him, Greed and Martel dodged and the beast's booted foot created a crater in the earth, Gluttony sprang at the beast and got off a single punch before another arm emerged from a gash on its shoulder and batted him away.

Lust engaged her Ultimate Spear and impaled it, the beast slammed it's rocket down on Lust's nails and broke them, Lust howled in agony and backed up, Gluttony regained his footing and launched himself at the beast and latched onto the rocket, using his acidic saliva to eat through the weapon.

The beast reached out for him, but a rapid succession of bullets tore its hand off, Riza joined the fight; adding her incredible shooting skills to their cause.

The beast shuddered as the bullets ripped through its flesh, Lust regenerated and slashed at the stitches that held its body together, Gluttony slammed all of his considerable body weight into its sternum, forcing it to its swollen knees, Martel wrapped her arms around several of its arms while Dorochet hacked others off.

Greed got a running start and punted a portion of the creature's maimed face off, it howled and struggled to rise, but couldn't; Wrath, who hadn't known how to contribute to the fight, now saw his chance and let loose a hail of earthen spears and tore through the beast's body like fingers through tissue paper.

The beast collapsed to the floor, dead.

* * *

The Master watched from the shadows of the immense ceilings with a smile; the fools had their backs turned to his newest creation, he hadn't created him to last, but he HAD created him to be a good distraction while he got his giant prepared.

His smile grew as he watched the beast's body split open and as the smaller creatures came out...

**Author's note: Dang this took me a bit, sorry for the wait, Please read and review!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

**Chapter 27: More Crossed Paths**

Roy Mustang crept down the stairs that led into the massive underground city where they'd found the liquefied remains of the Führer; he knew, just knew that he would find answers here.

The place hadn't been cordoned off yet and the lack of any military presence made him slightly nervous, the city was big enough to accommodate an army and filled with many shadows, all of which seemed to be darker than normal shadows.

Mustang had entered a small tunnel that seemed to be carved more crudely than the others, he heard a noise behind him and spun around to come face to face with a new homunculus: this one was more deformed than the rest, with bulging eyes, a gash-like mouth and a swollen head that was encircled by a halo-like brace, but his eye color is purple, so what else could he be?

Mustang had raised his hand and ready to snap when the homunculus spoke to him, "Hello human, I hear you've been looking for the murderer of one Maes Hughes, am I to assume that you are- I mean Were friends?", when Mustang didn't answer the homunculus continued, "The homunculus that killed Hughes is named Envy."

"And why would you tell me this?" Mustang asked with a raised brow, "Why would you betray one of your own?"

The homunculus shrugged, "Without a master I have to protect my own interests and the others would only get in the way of that, so I'll tell you where Envy is: he's farther down that tunnel." here the homunculus pointed down a dark tunnel that branched off from the main one.

As the homunculus turned to leave Mustang called out to him, "Which one are you?", not bothering to look back the homunculus said "I am Pride."

Mustang watched as the darkness swallowed "Pride" up, then he left.

* * *

Ed and the others watched in shock as twelve smaller creatures crawled out of the big one's carcass, they were so covered in gore that it was nearly impossible to see any defining features, they rushed at the group and overwhelmed them: Ed transformed his hand into a blade and slashed at two, but they dodged his attack and flanked him, slashing with remarkable speed, Ed started to block them, but he was one second too late and he let out a scream as the claws tore into his sides.

Riza and Lust had ended up with their backs to each other, but trying to fend off the incredibly fast creatures, Lust had managed to impale one of them, but now it was trying to pull its body down the claw to get at her, she took its head off and it thankfully stopped struggling.

Gluttony and Wrath were both dealing with three each, Wrath was creating spikes and shooting them out of the ground at them and Gluttony was using his tried and true tactic of trying to smash everything in his line of vision; Wrath sliced one of the little buggers in two, but its torso kept on coming and Gluttony crushed one to a pulp underneath his massive fist.

Alphonse, Greed, Martel and Dorochet had clustered together and were keeping them at bay, but they Just. Refused. To. Die, Martel let out a scream of rage and sorrow as one of the creatures leaped onto Dorochet's face and sunk its claws into his face, it ripped his face off and, when he fell to his knees, two more swarmed him and made quick, gruesome work of him, Martel lashed out and knocked them away, she then drew her knife and went to town on them.

* * *

Envy got to the scene of the fight in time to see his hated half-brother get wounded by two creatures, _No_ he thought _He's MINE to kill!_, Envy's veins filled with pure rage and he saw red, with a bright flash of light he turned into a massive bear with foaming jaws and claws like daggers; effectively ruining his ambush plan.

* * *

Edward was just as shocked as the little creatures when he saw the bear seemingly appear from nowhere, then his mind kicked in and he realized who it was; Ed watched in surprise as Envy/bear batted one away and snatched up another in its jaws, tearing it apart and pulping it, the other one launched itself at Envy/bear, but it was sliced to ribbons in a second.

Envy/bear turned to Edward and growled "I'm the one who gets to kill you, not these little bastards, ME!", Envy turned back into his preferred form and tried to punch him, Ed ducked and leaped out-of-the-way, Envy began to charge him, but a wall of flame hit him, knocking him off of his feet and throwing him to the ground.

Ed turned to see Roy emerge from the shadows behind where Envy was, "Looks like you could use a hand, Fullmetal."

**Author's note: sorry for the wait peeps, but it will take longer for me to update due to the fact that the story's coming to an end, please read and review 8D **


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: I don't own FMA**

**Chapter 28: Truth**

Envy was really regretting screwing up his element of surprise.

Mustang had incinerated him 5 times before Ed had told him to lay off, it had hurt, it still hurt and now the pipsqueak was standing over him with that look of anger and determination that Envy had seen a lot of lately.

He surveyed the people with the pipsqueak: the snake chimera, Alphonse, that traitor Greed, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Mustang's blond lackey, Ed's girlfriend and... Hohenheim.

"Hello... father, how's life been? Enjoying your new life? Your new sons? I hope you've had a good time, but all good things must come to an end and when I get out I'll-" Envy's tirade was stopped short when Mustang burned his tongue away; " I have no clue what you're talking about and I really don't give a damn, I heard from one of your friends that you are the one that killed Hughes, is that true?"

Envy's whole demeanor changed in an instant, he blanched and then began to frantically look around the area, his eyes widening when he looked behind Mustang, "Well... I'm waiting!" snapped Mustang, Envy shook his head whilst keeping his eyes in the same place.

Roy was getting angrier by the second, Envy was obviously trying to trick him by making him look behind him, he could tell by the mannerisms of the others that there wasn't anything behind him, but Envy kept it up anyway, How stupid does he think I am? Unless he's seeing something that I'm not... Mustang forced that thought out of his mind I've got to focus, this bastard killed Hughes and I won't rest until I get him to confess!

Roy grabbed Envy by the throat and began to squeeze "If you don't confess I swear I'll find out just how many times you can die before it's permanent.".

Envy could see Hughes behind Mustang, giving him a look that said "You'd better tell him.", Envy grasped Mustang's arm and managed to pull his hand off long enough to say "Yes.", Mustang roared like an animal and slammed him into the nearest wall, Envy felt 3 of his ribs break from the impact; Mustang threw him to the ground and snapped his fingers.

Envy's body lit up like a roman candle, the fat in his body adding fuel to the pyre that his body had become.

* * *

Roy snapped his fingers over and over, every snap elicited more screams, he was having tunnel vision, he felt like no-one could stop him without suffering serious harm and he honestly didn't care; he was avenging Hughes and it felt GOOD.

Suddenly a series of walls erupted from the ground and closed around the group, with the exception of Hohenheim, who rose above the others on a pillar, he looked down at each of them and said in a clear and commanding voice, "Listen to me! I know that what has happened has been agonizing and only now learning who killed Hughes must make it worse, but we are facing a danger that is far beyond the evil of the homunculi, we need to calm down and-"

There was a snap and the wall around Mustang exploded, the sound was loud enough to nearly burst Hohenheim's eardrums, Mustang appeared through the smoke with a murderous look on his face, "I don't care about any of that!" he roared "All I want to do is make him pay for what he did to my best friend!"

"You don't get it!" Hohenheim shouted back " We are dealing with the most powerful alchemist this world has ever seen!", Mustang looked taken aback for a moment and then said, in a calmer tone, "What d'you mean 'most powerful'?"

"If you don't mind I would like to explain." said a voice from the shadows, Hohenheim stiffened and turned around, all at once the walls retracted and the ground divided and crumbled away into nothingness, the groups were divided into two groups: Ed, Al, Envy, Greed and Martel on one side and Mustang, Wrath, Winry and Hawkeye on the other; the pillar that Hohenheim was standing on reconfigured into a stone hand and trapped him.

The Master stepped out of the shadows, creating a path to walk on as he advanced on them, "And you are?" asked Mustang, "I am the Master, I am, obviously, the powerful alchemist that Hohenheim of Light was referring to."

"The Master huh? It takes some serious arrogance to call yourself that." growled Edward, the Master turned his gaze to the blonde alchemist, he smirked "You're a smart boy Edward, tell me; do you know the supposed founder of the law of equivalent exchange?", Edward regarded him with a raised eyebrow, " It was Nicholas Flamel, a chemist who discovered equivalent exchange and the idea of alchemy a few hundred years ago."

The Master's smile grew wider.

It took Ed all of two seconds to realize what the Master was implying.

"Are you serious? You... You're supposed to be Nicholas Flamel?" Ed asked with a raised brow, then he burst into loud laughter, "HAHAHAHAHAHA-Oh man-heh-that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life!"

The Master sighed and then looked at Hohenheim, "Would you be so kind as to enlighten your son, Hohenheim?"

Edward stopped laughing when his father affixed him with a star that held both sadness and extreme anger, "Hohenheim... Dad, you can't be serious! Nicholas Flamel died hundreds of years ago! That freak can't be him!"

Hohenheim kept his gaze on his son and said " By all accounts I should be dead as well, don't you remember what I told you about me and Dante?", Edward looked at him with a shocked gaze which then became angry, "Was this psychopath another one of your "friends" back in the day?"

Hohenheim shook his head, "No, in fact you could say we were rivals, though only for a short while, I knew him before he started to lust for more power, as if being the man to discover alchemy wasn't enough."

The Master snorted, "Yes, I knew Hohenheim during his witch hunting days when he was married to that obnoxious whore Dante, I always thought it odd that they both drew the moral line in the sand at killing children.", Edward felt nausea settle in his stomach and, judging by the looks of the others faces, they did too.

_This bastard is just like Tucker..._

"You monster, what purpose could you have for killing children?!" shouted Mustang, the Master turned to him, "Because their souls have more potency to them, that and most of the homeless population consisted of the little mongrels back in my day."

Mustang drew back his hand to snap, but a spike exploded out of the wall and impaled his hand, destroying the circle on the glove at the same time, the colonel howled in agony and fell to his knees only for another spike to impale his other hand, "NO! Colonel!" screamed Hawkeye, she turned and fired at the Master, but the bullets stopped just short of their mark, they hung in the air and then fell to the ground, another monster emerged from behind The Master, Envy recognized him as the Lieutenant.

The Master fixed Hawkeye with a stern gaze before scoffing and turning on his heel, " I'm done talking to this pathetic insects, take Wrath and Envy, I believe we are almost ready to begin."

"Wait!" called Alphonse

The Master turned back to him, "Yes?"

"What is that thing under central?"

"I thought you might come across that, if you must know... it's an organic bomb designed to unleash a lethal toxin into the air, in 3 hours it will begin producing the toxin and Every. Single. Insect in Amestris will be fodder for my goal. Goodbye children."

The Lieutenant laughed and clapped his hands, Alphonse's world went dark.

**Author's note: Sorry for the delay, but this tale is coming to an end, it should take only a few more chapters. Please read and review.**


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